A Dark Path to Tread
by blood-hybrid-of-darkness96
Summary: Imagine a DC universe where heroes and villains who weren't born with their powers, came from a long family history of those abilities. What if some had siblings? Two words will change the course of one young man's life forever. Slight AU. OC/Rae/ Argent. Lemons will (probably) come later.
1. Chapter 1: Walking Along

I was walking home from school on, I think, a Wednesday. Jump City schools release late, so it was close to dark as I walked down the suburban street. My mom always told me to be home before dark, because there are some major psychos out there.

"It's dangerous out there, Lucas," She'd always say. "Make sure you're home before the sun goes down."

I understand what she's saying, but I can handle myself... I think.

Ok, I really can't. I try not to draw attention to myself. I sit at the back of the room, I don't talk to anyone, I eat lunch alone. But bullies are drawn to picking on the quiet ones, and I'm as quiet as a church mouse.

The fact I have no friends doesn't help either. I have no-one to defend me, no-one to back me up. So I always get picked on and beat up. And that day, I came across the biggest bully of all beating the Teen Titans to a mass of pulps: Adonis.

As I walked past, Cyborg ran straight at him, fist raised high, and Adonis retaliated in the same. Cyborg caught his fist, but was still launched back several feet, and into the side of a building.

Next, Beast Boy flew at him as a falcon or something. Adonis grabbed him and quickly threw him for all he was worth, and Beast Boy landed on Cyborg in his human form.

Finally Robin, the Boy Wonder, ran at him and started unleashing jujitsu moves left and right, complemented by his bo staff. Adonis caught his staff and swung robin around like he weighed nothing, launching him through the wall next to Cyborg and Beast Boy.

Starfire was nowhere to be seen, and Raven was laying in a massive crater, unconscious, her limbs splayed everywhere and her cloak in tatters.

Normally, I'm a pretty relaxed guy, and I don't fight about much. But seeing my heroes being thrown around like they were insignificant ants really pissed me off. I dropped my bag and did the one thing that at the moment seemed logical.

I charged at Adonis.


	2. Chapter 2: Tipping the Scales

**A/N: Ok, I don't know how many people have ACCUATLLY read chapter one, but to the**

 **anon who posted my first review: Thank you for reading, and for your totally tangental and near-incomprehensible review. To those who didn't review but did read, thank you for opening a new fic and giving it a chance, and I can only guess that you want to read more before passing ultimate divine fury on my insignificant writing. (In case you haven't guessed, I have very low self-esteem and a lack of confidence in my endeavors) So I will try my best to produce quality chapters in a timely manner for your enjoyment. Also, Chapter one was supposed to be titled "Walking Along"**

 **Chapter 2: Tipping the Scales**

Ok, so my "surprise attack" didn't go so well; Adonis saw me sprinting at him. He threw on a smirk then laughed out, "A pissant like you thinks he can take on Adonis?!"

I ignored him and kept sprinting, at the same time trying to desperately form some kind of plan. One clicked into place as I saw a big, old oak tree in a nearby yard, which also had a nice little garden I noted, and I changed course. Adonis noted this and moved to follow me, shouting out, "Oh hell no! No-one challenges Adonis then tries running away!"

O _h my sweet everloving Gaia... SHUT THE HELL UP YOU ARROGANT SELF-CENTERED PRICK!_ I thought as I neared the tree, after having cleared the fence. Adonis was fast, and was quickly gaining on me, having just smashed right through said fence. He reached me, just as I reached the tree and sprinted up the trunk, then vaulted off and over Adonis' head. Though I don't look it, I'm actually very good at parkour. My thera- sorry, _Life improvement counselor_ recommended I find a way to stay fit, and going to the gym where people could stare at me didn't really sit well with me. So I took up running, jumping, climbing, and ninja-ing my way around Jump City.

Just as I landed, rolling once to disperse the impact, a tree branch suddenly shot out and smacked Adonis in the face, while a root that had TOTALLY been there twelve seconds ago seemed to raise out of the ground a little. Adonis stumbled backwards, off balance from the branch hitting his face, and tripped over the root, and promptly fell. His massive body weight didn't seem to help as he landed, rolled down the small hill and came to a stop in front of the titans, who were slowly getting up.

Robin, the combat genius that he is, quickly saw his temporary advantage and grabbed his bo-staff, smacking Adonis as Cyborg shot his Sonic Pulse Cannon.

I was about to start back on my way home, when I heard a very tired Beast Boy call out, "Hey dude! How did you do that?" I froze, then turned and saw him looking right at me while his teammates continued to subdue Adonis.

"I-i-i u-umm..." My brain locked up, and I did what usually comes pretty naturally to me; I turned around and ran at top speed away from Beast Boy, who shouted something I didn't hear. I didn't even get to grab my back-pack.


	3. Chapter 3: Found Out

**A/N: Well, I feel all warm and fuzzy that people are actually reading my writing. Thank you all for your consideration. Please, if you see anything wrong, or there's something you want clarified, or even if there's something you want to see happen, leave a review, or PM me, and I will consider what is said. Thank you.**

 **Chapter 3: Found Out**

It doesn't matter how in shape you are and how fast you can run, flying is always faster. Unless you're the Flash, which I obviously am not. And that's exactly the reason that Starfire caught up to me.

As I was sprinting all-out away from my heroes, I heard shouts following me. I got all of three blocks before Starfire landed in front of me, her hand glowing.

"Please stop your movement!" She shouted as she aimed her hand at me. I'll admit, I panicked. I've seen what she could do with those glowing hands, and I did NOT want to be on the receiving end. So I did something incredibly stupid; I tackled Starfire. As my momentum carried us both to the ground, I planted my hands around her shoulders and shifted my weight, doing a front-hand spring that I somehow managed to not botch completely. When I was back on my feet, I kept running. Only a few seconds later was I totally screwed.

"Azarath Mitrion Zinthos!" Once the words were out there, a large wall split the road in half, blocking my route, and it was too high for me to run up. I skidded to a stop and frantically searched for a way around, but two more concrete walls rose up on either side, boxing me in. I whipped around to see Raven standing there, panting. As she stood there watching me and trying to catch her breath, I got my first real look at her. Her cloak was in tatters, the hood gone completely, and her leotard was just barely any better, so a fair amount of skin was showing. She stood up straight as she caught me looking at her, fear evident in my eyes, and I noticed she seemed to be almost a foot shorter than me.

Her violet eyes held no discernible emotions as her shoulder-length hair of the same color swayed in the gentle breeze.

A few moments later, the rest of the Titans caught up, all trying to catch their breath, except Starfire, who just looked miffed.

"Dude...how...the hell...did...you...catch him?" Beast Boy panted out, hunched over with his hands on his knees.

The young heroes fell into discussion among themselves for a few seconds, then Robin stepped toward me. I flinched and closed my eyes, throwing my hands up to defend myself.

"I think you dropped this." Realizing I wasn't going to be hit, I slowly opened my eyes and peeked around my hand to see Robin holding out my backpack. I gingerly reached out for it, when his fist connected with my face.

"That was for tackling Starfire."

"Robin, was that really necessary? He reacted instinctively, considering he's likely seen Starfire's powers before. He probably thought she was about to use them on him." Raven said in a monotone voice.

Robin cringed and shook his head. "I...don't know. I just really feel like hitting him for some reason..."

I whimpered as I sat there on my ass. I knew why he wanted to hit me. My damn powers hated me, I swear to Gaia.

"Robin, it was not kind to hit this young man over such a small matter! I will admit it was my fault for activating my powers as I did," Starfire said in a scolding tone. She was hovering a few inches off the ground, and had her hands on her hips. Robin flinched visibly and mumbled an apology.

Cyborg stepped forward and offered me a hand up. As soon as he reached for me though, I scuttled backwards until my back pressed up against the wall Raven had raised.

"Dude, what's with him?" Beast Boy asked, scratching his head. Cyborg looked just as confused.

A sigh cut through the air as Raven reached a quick conclusion. "He's not only scared of us, he's probably really shy too."

"Why would he be scared of us? It's not like we're the bad guys, right?" Beast Boy looked at me like he was trying to solve a riddle that had stumped him for a long time. Cyborg caught on quickly though.

"We're not only heroes, we're all strong in some way, and we chased him like he did something wrong."

I just watched all of this quietly, trying to slow my racing heart. Beast Boy had other ideas though. He jumped in my face.

"Dude! We were just trying to figure out what you did and return your bag!" I let out a short scream and threw my hand forward. In response a large vine smashed through the concrete surrounding me and hit Beast Boy in the face, launching him backwards and knocking down most of the Titans like bowling pins. Raven had moved to the side, seeing what was happening just in time. She quickly moved into a defensive fighting stance I recognized as Judo style. I squeaked quietly and backed up as far as I could go. Seeing this, Raven lowered her stance, and raised an energy wall just as Beast Boy got up and tried charging me in anger, screaming.

"WHAT WAS THAT FOR YOU JERK!"

"Beast Boy, calm down! You scared him! He doesn't want to fight us!"

"RAVEN! HE JUST PUNCHED ME!"

"N-n-no I-I d-d-didn't..." I stuttered out quietly. I went unnoticed, as usual.

"No, he didn't Beast Boy. I don't know what happened, but he never touched you." Raven stated clearly. That tripped the shape-shifter up.

"What? But I got hit in the face!"

"By a plant vine. I don't know how it happened, but the vine hit you in the face when he threw his arm out. Almost like it was...answering... a..." Raven trailed off as she looked at me, realization etched across her face. The others (who had all gotten up) had the same expression as they gaped at me, except Beast Boy, who just looked lost.

"You...control plants.." Robin sounded disturbed as he said it out loud. He then zeroed in on my nose, which was bleeding slightly from when he punched me earlier. He was beaten in pointing out something though.

"Your blood is green! Are you from another planet?!" Starfire seemed in awe as she gazed at my abnormal blood.

Robin began muttering to himself, albeit audibly, "He controls plants...his blood is green...almost like it's chlorophyll..." he looked at me curiously for a moment. "His hair looks normal though... still I haven't seen these traits since Batman and I fought...Poison Ivy..." his gaze snapped back to me as a scowl formed on his face.

 _Oh crap,_ I thought. _He figured it out! I am so dead!_ My eyes widened as I watched Robin slowly reach behind his back, most likely for his bo-staff.

"Why is it that you have the same powers as Poison Ivy?" He asked suspiciously as his eyes narrowed behind his mask. Each of the titans tensed up at the question and looked at me expectantly.

I swallowed loudly and broke out in a cold sweat. I stayed quiet until their stares became too much for me.

"B-b-b-b-because s-s-s-she's m-my s-s-s-sister."


	4. Chapter 4: A Sudden Change

**A/N: Oh my good Gaia, people are reading! Anyway, for the first... ten chapters or so I'll be (trying) to update daily. After that I'll slow it down to a weekly update to give people time to read and leave reviews if they want. My creative muse is standing behind me with a golf club, pummeling me to work on this fic, so that's the whole daily update reason. Anyway, on to the antics of Lucas and the Teen Titans!**

 **Chapter 4: A Sudden Change**

Following my quiet answer, each Titan had a different reaction; Robin whipped out his staff and assumed a battle-stance, clear hatred written on his face. Cyborg stiffened and looked at me analytically, but otherwise had no outward reaction. Beast Boy's eyes widened and he moved back a step, fear plastered on his green face. Starfire hovered there, her head cocked to the side, confusion evident in her posture. Raven had the smallest reaction; she did absolutely nothing except continue looking at me with an emotionless gaze.

Robin's obviously had me the most worried, but Beast Boy's hit me the hardest. His was the expression EVERYONE had when they found out about my connection to the deadly half-plant Eco-terrorist supervillain. But seeing it from one of my heroes...made something snap inside of me.

"I AM NOT A MONSTER!"

My fear was totally gone, replaced by hurt and rage. The Titans blinked at me after my outburst. Apparently, they hadn't expected the kid who was quiet and stuttering a second ago to shout loud enough to crack the concrete walls Raven had raised.

Robin reacted before anyone else, but in a way no-one else did. He jumped forward, swinging his staff trying to brain me. The others, except Raven, moved back a step from the explosion of sound, while Raven's eyes widened to the size small soup bowls.

I reacted to Robin by lifting my arm and catching his bo-staff. He looked surprised by the fact I both moved fast enough to not only block his attack, but also to get a good hold on his weapon, and that I wasn't howling in pain, clutching my arm which was without a doubt supposed to be broken.

"IT'S BECAUSE OF **PEOPLE LIKE YOU THAT VILLIANS ARE MADE!"** As I shouted, vines shot out of my flesh and crawled quickly down Robin's staff, wrapping around his arms and constricting. Fear shot across Robin's face for the first time since I'd seen him.

I lifted the staff, and Robin's bound form with it, until he was dangling in front of me, his feet a couple of feet of the ground.

 **"YOU AND YOUR BIGOTED BELIEF THAT ANYONE WHO IS LIKE SOMEONE ELSE** _ **IS**_ **THAT PERSON CREATES SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECIES AND NEW VILLAINS ARE MADE ALL THE TIME, YOU NARROW-MINDED, ARROGANT ASS-HOLE!"** I clenched my hand slowly, causing the vines to begin constricting Robin more and more, slowly crushing his entire body. He cried out in pain, and the other Titans jumped into action. Beast Boy changed into a rhino and ran at me, but Honeysuckle quickly sprouted from the ground and wrapped around his entire form, caking itself on thick enough to hold the shapechanger. Cyborg changed his arm into the cannon and aimed it at me, but since he was relatively close, the vines that were wrapped around Robin shot out and latched onto his arm, re-directing the shot to the side so it missed me entirely. Starfire charged up two starbolts and tried to blast me, but a rosebush that was nearby expanded exponentially in a few quick seconds and took the hits. Raven, oddly, just stood there with a strange look on her face, like she was torn between helping her friends and breaking down crying, which seemed odd for the emotionless magus.

I growled lowly, " **IS THAT THE BEST YOU'VE GOT? WHY DON'T YOU COME AT ME LIKE YOU WOULD SLADE? OR MY SISTER? HUH? AM I NOT GOOD ENOUGH FOR YOU?!"**

"AZARATH MITRION ZINTHOS!" Raven suddenly shouted. I braced for a hit, but instead her dark energy wrapped around her team-mates and pulled them away from me. When she turned back to me, I saw compassion in her eyes.

"I'm sorry."

I jerked my head back in surprise. "What?"

Raven lowered her hands, and her eyes slightly, and said, "I'm sorry that people look at you like you're your sister. I know what that's like...to be looked at like you're evil, when you're not."

Robin groaned as he stood up. "Raven, get him! He's..." he grunted in pain and doubled over, clutching his head. "Ugh...he's related...to...a psychopath!" Rage flashed through Raven's eyes as she heard this.

Her voice though, was calm as she responded, "And would you attack Starfire because Blackfire tried to kill us twice?" Robin looked confused and shook his head violently. "Would you attack me because of who my father is?" Robin seemed to slightly connect the dots, though he clutched his head more and nearly screamed in pain.

"No...but...he's...different..." Robin tried to make a point through his groaning, but I stopped that shit real quick. I stepped forward and brought my knee up to his face, which was facing down from his leaning over in pain. I put enough force into it to knock him out for about an hour...and to break his nose.

"T-t-that w-was for b-b-b-breaking m-my n-n-nose. Y-y-y-y-you j-jerk." As Robin fell onto his back, out cold. Raven looked at me in mild surprise.

"Was that needed?"

I shrugged timidly. "P-p-probably not, b-b-but i-it f-f-felt g-g-good." Back to my quiet self... damn it. Raven just smirked a little and went over to the others.

"If I let you go, will you attack..." She looked at me. "Sorry, but we never asked your name."

I shuffled my feet and looked down, wringing my hands. "L-l-lucas..."

Cyborg looked blank for a few seconds, then shook his head. "Ugh... what happened?"

Raven frowned. "You attacked Lucas when he defended himself from Robin."

Beast Boy looked like he still wanted to attack me, but was restraining himself. Starfire looked utterly confused. Cyborg looked like he was fine, just analyzing what had happened.

"I'm picking up a lot of strange pheromones and hormones around here."

"T-t-t-that w-w-would be m-me."

The Titans who were conscious looked at me in confusion.

"I-i'm h-h-h-h-half p-p-p-plant so I p-p-put o-out t-t-those ch-ch-chemicals as a n-n-n-natural d-d-defense..."

"So when you're scared, people attack you, and when you're angry..." Cyborg trailed off.

I nodded slowly. "E-e-everyone b-b-becomes a-a-a-aggressive."

"Then why wasn't Rae affected?" Cyborg queried.

"Because I have near complete control of my emotions because of powers."

"A-a-a-and R-robin w-w-was m-most e-e-effected b-because he's f-f-fought I-ivy before."

"So he is more likely to be influenced by your small scents?" Starfire asked. I squeaked and nodded.

"B-b-b-beast B-b-boy too." this caught everyone off guard.

"What?! Why would I be more controlled?!"

"Because of your nose Beast boy. Your animalistic traits cause your sense of smell to be more focused, therefore, the scents will be more prevailant to you," Raven explained.

Beast Boy just cocked his head and shrugged.

Starfire suddenly cried out. Everyone looked at her. "We must give some form of apology to Lucas for our unprovoked attack!"

Raven just sighed and rubbed her temples, muttering something that sounded like "here we go."

Cyborg, Beast Boy, and Starfire fell int a group huddle, quietly discussing what could be done to apologize to me. I shuffled over to Raven.

"D-does th-th-this kind o-of thin h-h-happen o-o-often?"

She grimaced slightly. "No, but this response to them being wrong happens too much for me."

I nodded in understanding and shuffled away slightly. The others had reached a consensus.

"Dude, how would you like to see the Tower?" Beast Boy asked.

My eyes widened and my mouth dropped open. "I-I-I'd h-h-h-have to a-a-a-ask m-my m-m-m-mom..."

Starfire started jumping for joy. "Then let us go!"

After quickly returning the landscape to normal, we started on our way to my house, Robin slung over Cyborgs' shoulder.

I had no idea what was in store for me.


	5. Chapter 5: Broken Home

**A/N: Ok. I want to first thank everyone for sticking with me so far. *bows formally* Origotou. Anyway, as you've probably realized, though I said I'm shipping Lucas and Raven, it WILL NOT be that overused, clich** **é** **d, love-at-first-sight bullshit. I hate crap like that. Instead it will be like the real world; slow, gradual, and not perfect. Anyway, if you're curious about Lucas' powers/ strength, it will all be explained in the next few chapters. *evil laughter* and in case you haven't noticed, I love cliff-hangers.**

 **Chapter 5: Broken Home**

The Titans followed me home. As weird as it was, I just sort of...went with it. Having one super hero follow me would be weird enough, but having five? Gaia, how I didn't melt into a puddle, I'll never know, even if Robin was still unconscious. The troupe of teenage terror trackers laughed, joked, and talked the whole way, mostly trying to get me to get involved in the conversation. Raven just glided along, putting in her opinion when asked a question or addressed, but mostly she just looked around at the neighborhood.

"Hey... why was Lucas able to lift Robin so easily? I mean, sure he's kinda tall, but he looks scrawny." Beast boy made his point suddenly by lifting my arm and poking it. What met his probing digit surprised him greatly, judging by his reaction.

"HOLY CRAP! HE'S RIPPED AS FUCK!"

Starfire looked at both of us curiously. "What does friend Beast Boy mean?"

I sighed quietly. This was something I'd hoped to avoid. Beast Boy and Cyborg shared an evil snicker, then Cyborg charged at me quickly and threw a full power punch aimed at the back of my head as I walked.

I ducked under his fist, which I heard coming, turned quickly, knocking Cyborg's feet out from under him with a leg sweep. As he fell, a look of utter surprise on his face, I used the momentum of my turn to launch a fist into his metallic gut. His face clenched in pain before he was sent flying backwards into Beast Boy, who looked utterly astonished, and they both crashed to the ground groaning.

I turned to look at Starfire and Raven. Starfire's jaw was hanging around her collarbone, and her eyes were as large as dinner plates, her arms hanging limply by her sides. Raven looked as stoic and unreadable as ever, though her eyebrows were somewhere up in her hairline. Robin, having been dropped by Cyborg when I hit him, lay in a crumpled heap at Starfire's feet.

I looked down quickly, lifted my hood, turned and kept walking. I only got a few feet before everyone caught up to me, Cyborg rubbing his stomach and Beast Boy rubbing his head, and started bombarding me with questions.

"How did you DO that?!" Beast Boy asked.

"You have the strength of ten Glorka Beetles!" Starfire cried.

"I might have to repair my circuits later..." Cyborg sounded impressed.

Raven, however made the only request, but it sounded more like a demand.

"Lucas, take off your hoodie."

I froze. Beast Boy laughed.

"Come on Raven! This isn't something you ask for on the first date!"

I heard a hiss, then a loud scream. I whipped around quickly, to see Raven glaring at Beast Boy, who was in Starfire's arms bridal style, who in turn was hiding behind Cyborg. Raven turned her glare on me, and I knew she wasn't in the mood for evasive tactics.

 _How does she know that I was going to try to change the subject?_ I thought fearfully.

I lifted my hoodie from my body quickly, so as to avoid being the target of... whatever it was that she used against her friends. Careful to avoid lifting my shirt as well, I got my dark grey, pullover hoodie off, revealing my arms in a short-sleeve, black T-shirt with a Disturbed logo on it. Noting the Logo, Raven raised one eyebrow. Obviously she found it odd that the quiet, stuttering kid who seemed to have no confidence liked a Metal band like Disturbed. Then she turned her attention to my arms, which were... nothing very special. Though my arms were long, proportional to my above-average height of 6' 4". What stood out, or rather what DIDN'T stand out was the muscles. They were only just above average definition. Which wouldn't explain the insane strength I've displayed. This obviously clicked with everyone, as they all looked at my arms curiously.

"Dude... your arms are like really skinny! They felt so strong!" Beast Boy ran in circles, tears running from his eyes in rivers.

I blushed under the attention, and rubbed my left arm with my right hand. "W-w-w-well, b-being h-h-h-half p-p-plant... I h-h-have the s-s-s-strength of the n-n-n-n-n-natural w-w-w-world...and the t-t-t-t-t-turgor p-p-p-pressure of p-p-plants is present i-i-in m-m-my b-b-b-b-body."

Beast Boy stopped, looked at me, and grabbed his head. "WHAT THE HELL IS T- UHH TU..."

"Turgor pressure is the strength between the cells of plants caused by the rigid cell wall, so plants are generally strong, tough, and hard to destroy."

Beast Boy broke down, swirls in his eyes. Starfire looked like she was sort of understanding what Raven was saying. Cyborg looked to be the only one who really understood. I just shuffled my feet and put my hoodie back on. I looked at the sky, and panicked. It was almost dark!

"ohcrapmomsgoingtobepissedifidon'tgethomebeforethesunsets!" I spouted out quickly, then took off running as fast as I could. I only vaguely heard the Titans follow after me. I wasn't fast enough to not leave a dust trail, so there was a large cloud of dust and debris following me as I bolted down the remaining three blocks and rounded the corner, but stopped dead in my tracks.

My brain shut down, because I could not process what was in front of me. I could not even begin to describe what was before me at he moment. I stood there, mouth hanging slightly open. For several hours (read: thirty seconds) I just stood there, arms limply dangling about my waist, trying to reboot my brain.

Only when I heard laughter suddenly cut off and small curses muttered did I realize that I was stiff. Only when I saw a cloaked figure dash past me and attempt to stand in front of me, did I remember who I was with. Only when the words left Raven's mouth did I dash forward.

"Lucas, is that your house?"

"MOM!"

Cyborg's arm wrapped around my shoulder, and Starfire's around my waist, attempting to restrain me physically while Raven tried to speak to me. Her words fell on deaf ears and I slowly took one step at a time, dragging the two physically strongest members of the Teen Titans along. I could hear their feet dragging through the concrete. Beast Boy, surprisingly did nothing. Raven raised her hands and held me back with her powers. I struggled as hard as I could, but her will was stronger at the moment.

Beast Boy finally said something. "Lucas... she's gone."

That one statement broke me. I stopped fighting, took two steps back, and fell into a heap. Totally devoid of emotions, all except crushing despair.

In front of our small cluster of teenagers, was my modest, two-story house. What broke me though was the décor. Plant Vines were completely covering the entire house, not a single bit of the building could be seen through the creeping plants, so one couldn't really tell what color the house was, or what it really looked like.

The worst part, though, by far, was the body. A middle-aged woman who had long black hair, a short, slight build, and no apparent jewelry or make-up, was hung above the front door, her neck bent at an odd angle, a vine wrapped around her neck.

The resemblance was obvious to anyone, despite the height difference. I took more after my mother in looks than I did my father.

My mother was dangling by her broken neck from a vine above my front door. At this point only one coherent thought managed to form.

 _I'm an orphan..._

Once they saw me fall into a heap, the Titans each did something different. Cyborg moved to the house to cut my mother down and inspect her...body. Raven entered a meditative pose, hovering above the ground, doing whatever the hell she does. Starfire woke Robin and filled him in. Beast Boy stayed by my side and just patted and rubbed my shoulder in consolation, not saying anything. Obviously, he'd gone through something similar.

"What plant is this?" Starfire asked no-one in particular.

I answered just loud enough to be heard, in a dead voice, from where I lay.

"Poison Ivy."


	6. Chapter 6: The Process of Living

**A/N: Yeah, I know. You all hate me. My friend/ beta (kinda) griped at me for doing that to Lucas, so cruelly anyway. As she put it, "Why would you do this to Lucas, the precious Nerdsprout." Well, I'll tell all of you what I told her. Lucas must have his branches broken, his roots culled, and his dead limbs pruned, before he can sprout anew, as a stronger person. (quite literally, she pointed out, as he's half-plant) So, yes, this will be a darker fic at times, but there will be just as many lighter moments (maybe), but at it's core, it's a revenge/ pain fic. Lucas will not come through unscathed. He'd have no depth. So I will break Lucas before building him back up. I sincerely hope that you will all stay with me through that journey. Anyway... I know I'm forgetting something... *does winnie the pooh style think thing* oh yeah! Another friend of mine bitched at me for this after reading Chapter 1 last night.**

 **DISCLAIMER: In case it was not glaringly obvious, by my use of this very website, I do not own Teen Titans, DC, etc etc blah blah blah. This is the only time I'm saying this crap.**

 **Chapter 6: The Process of Living**

Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.

Two hours had passed since I came home.

Tick. Tock.

Twenty minutes after I returned, the police showed up, though I don't know why.

Tick.

Another five, and several fire-engines appeared, the firemen toting axes, hedge-trimmers, and small flamethrower-like tools.

Tock.

After ten minutes of talking, the firemen moved toward my home, and started cutting, hacking, and burning my mothers' prized Ivy garden. I frowned and took a few steps in their direction. Only to be stopped by a small, pretty girl with lavender hair whom I felt I should recognize.

"Lucas, don't interfere. Sit down. Be quiet." she commanded with a firm voice, and a small look of pain.

I returned to my spot and sat down, my feet pulled up to the curb, my knees against my chest.

Tick. Tock

Twenty-five minutes later, my mothers' prize-winning Ivy was all removed, piled into a large heap. The police moved quickly into the house, guns drawn, while the firemen returned to the engines and sat there, talking quietly amongst themselves. I sat there quietly, as I was instructed. I still didn't understand why these men had ruined my moms' garden, or why I wasn't allowed into my own house. But I was raised to respect my elders, especially the police, so I left them alone.

Tick.

Another five minutes passed before the pretty girl from earlier came over and sat next to me, a dark blue cloak wrapped around her body, though it was in ribbons, so I could see underneath it. She had pale skin, like she didn't get out in the sun much, and her hair and eyes were both a deep lavender. There was a gem of some sort on her forehead.

"Lucas..." She sounded hesitant. "How old are you?"

"Seventeen." Someone said. It wasn't me, obviously, because I have a terrible stutter, _especially_ around girls like this. Pretty, confident, radiating an Aura of power.

The girl sighed.

Tock.

Ten more minutes flew past as she directed questions at me, only for someone else to answer them for me before I got a chance. Strangely, her gaze never left me, and the answers where all one-worded. If that wasn't possible, the person stayed silent.

Tick. Tock.

After another forty-five minutes of sitting there, waiting for someone to let me in my house, a sleek black car pulled up to the curb, and a woman in a suit got out, a briefcase in hand. She tried approaching me, but was stopped by a short green boy with messy hair, and a slightly taller boy in an odd outfit with spiky hair. They talked quietly for a few moments, before their whispers turned harsh. I could hear snippets of the conversation.

"Lucas...foster care...he's eighteen." Said the woman.

 _Foster care?_ I thought in confusion. _Why am I in the same sentence as foster care? That's only for orphans. I'm not an orphan... mom is only at the store._

The green boy shook his head violently, slashing his arm through the air. The boy with the spiky hair put a hand on his shoulder, then stepped forward. Again, I only heard snippets of what he was saying.

"No...psychopath...killed...protect him."

I scrunched up my face for a moment in confusion, before it fell back to a blank mask on it's own. The girl next to me had been talking calmly, but I'd tuned her out for the most part. As the two boys and the woman continued arguing I turned to her.

"You have a beautiful voice Raven, but could you please be quiet for now? I just want silence."

 _Strange. That first bit was what I was going to say, but the rest is... is Raven this girls' name? It suits her._

The girl looked at me with a flash of annoyance, but nodded and closed her mouth. I don't know why she looked at me though, I wasn't the one who talked. I tried to tell her that, but nothing came out of my mouth. So I just turned to face the other side of the street. A tall-looking girl with fiery orange hair that was down to her waist was floating around lifting things to help the police officers, and a tall cybernetic African-American was flagging down cars and turning them around. He allowed an ambulance through though. I was still trying to figure out why so many people were at my house, but I never asked , because that would seem rude.

The ambulance stopped and a man stepped out, looking around as though someone was bleeding to death. The gi- no Raven. I had to remember her name was apparently Raven. Raven stood and approached the paramedic. They exchanged a few words, then Raven gestured at me. The EMT nodded and approached me slowly while Raven went over to join the ongoing conversation (read: argument) between the two boys and the woman in the suit. Likely as a mediator. She seemed the calm sort.

The man knelt down in front of me, and took out a penlight. He lifted my right eyelid and moved the light across my pupil, then back the other way. He then repeated the process with my left eye. Then he put two fingers to my wrist, while looking at his watch. He sat there for a full minute before removing his fingers, and he didn't look happy.

"What's your name son?" the man asked slowly.

 _Lucas._ I tried to say.

"Lucas James Isley." There was that damned voice again, answering for me. I looked around, trying to find out where it was coming from, but found no-one near me. The paramedic pulled out a small notebook and a pen, and began writing in it. I managed to get a small look. My name was at the top, followed by a few notes about beats per minute, then something about response to stimuli.

"What's your birthday?" he asked. "How old are you?"

 _Seventeen, October Twenty-third._

"I'm seventeen, and my birthday is October the twenty-third."

My eyebrows steepled themselves. That was MY birthday. Why was this voice answering not only for me, but as though it WAS me.

"Do you know what's going on here Lucas?"

 _No. I'm just waiting for my mother to get home from the store, but all these people won't let me inside to take a shower and do my homework._ My daily routine once I got home from school.

"My mother was killed by a vicious psychopath, and you are checking me for signs of shock while the Teen Titans help the police and attempt to figure out what will happen to me for the next eight months until I turn eighteen and am considered a legal adult."

W _oah, someone got killed? Dude, that sucks._ I thought.

The EMT looked slightly surprised, but set his face and nodded.

"Thank you, Lucas. Have a nice," he cringed momentarily. "Have a... ah shit. Try not to get yourself killed kid." he turned quickly and met Raven, who'd seen him rising, and they began a quiet conversation a few feet away. I could hear it all.

"He's in shock. Most likely emotional or mental. His heartbeat is all over the place, his eyes didn't dilate correctly when I shined a light in them, and he's way too calm sounding for someone who found his mothers' corpse two hours ago. Your best bet is to take him somewhere quiet, get him something hot to drink, and keep an eye on him to make sure he doesn't hurt himself."

"Thank you. I'll ensure no harm comes to him," Raven said. She walked...or glided maybe, away from him and back to me. She offered her hand to me, and my hand moved out on it's own to grasp hers. She lifted me off the curb, and I rose to my full height, which seemed to be almost a foot taller than hers. Keeping her hand in mine, which I totally did not mind, she moved to the two boys who looked like they were close to breaking the suited woman in half.

"Robin," she said. "I'm taking Lucas back to the tower. I'll be in the living room with him when you guys get back."

The boy with the spiky hair, who I might add was dressed ridiculously, nodded slightly. Apparently his name was Robin.

"No you are not! He is coming with me!" shouted the suited lady.

She made a grab for my wrist, but the green boy shot his hand out, grabbed _her_ wrist, and jerked it to the side. Then, he growled.

"YOU. WILL. NOT. TOUCH. HIM." his voice radiated pure fury.

Robin (I'll have to remember to call him that) scowled at the woman.

"Beast Boy, I think she gets the message." H didn't look like he really wanted to calm the green- no Beast Boy. He didn't really look like he wanted to calm Beast Boy down, but he attempted to stop a bloody murder.

Raven quickly threw the remains of her cloak over me, and I was enveloped in shadow, and a feeling of utter cold. She removed her cloak tatters and I was in a large room with a floor-to-ceiling window and a large flat-screen TV. The view from the window showed all of Jump City, with a barely noticeable congregation of police lights visible to the far left side.

 _Is that my neighborhood?_ It seemed to be in the right place, but I'd never seen Jump City from this angle before, so I couldn't be totally sure.

Instead of pondering this, I turned to survey the rest of the gigantic room. Right behind me was a large semi-circular couch wrapped around a small coffee table covered in different game controllers, pizza boxes, and cereal bowls. Behind the couch was a large open space separated into a wrap-around booth with a large dinner table on the right (from my view) and a small free-standing kitchen on the left. As I watched, Raven removed a whistling tea kettle from the stove and poured the hot water into two mugs with tea-strings hanging out of the tops and to the sides.

Once she put thee kettle on a cool burner, Raven picked up both mugs, exited the small kitchen, and approached me holding out one of the mugs to me.

"Green tea, with added mint. It will help calm your nerves."

 _My nerves are fine, though._

"Thank you, Raven." My hand moved on its' own and grasped the mug, my fingers brushing Ravens' momentarily. She seemed not to notice. She sat on the large couch, legs crossed meditation-style, and my body joined her in the same pose of its' own accord, a few cushions down. She looked at my perfect meditation posture in mild surprise.

"You meditate?"

Y _es._

"As you noticed, my powers respond to emotions outside of my will," She put on a look like she could relate. "Meditation helps me keep in tune with nature, and thus have my powers lash out less without consent. Gaia willing, it helps me keep a calm head when provoked."

Raven raised an eyebrow, but said nothing, instead lifting her mug to her mouth and taking a drink. My arms and mouth did the same. The taste of tea flowed down my throat, a strong, natural taste. Earthy, but at the same time surprisingly free. The heat suffused my mouth and spread through my body, relaxing my muscles. I sighed involuntarily.

My arms lowered the mug. I heard the voice clear it's voice, and knew it was about to speak again.

"Now what?"


	7. Chapter 7: An Awkward Recovery

**A/N: Ok, so firt things first, there is a PM I have to address.**

 **Anon (by request): No, Lucas does not have multiple-personality disorder or schizophrenia, he's in shock. His mind can't comprehend the events that have taken place, so he ha reverted to a simpler state of mind (to himself) temporarily.**

 **Second. After a small discussion, I have a request for all of you, my fabulous readers. TeslaThemedWriter is an aspiring writer (duh) and wishes to have their fics read and reviewed, so they can see what they've done wrong, and how they can improve. It's optional (obviously), but would you give them a chance? Please and Thank You.**

 **Now, Soon Lucas will have to deal with the world as he knows it changing, and then he begins training to be a Titan! What roll will he fill? How fast will he progress? Where the hell is his sister? Keep reading to find out!**

 **Chapter 7: An Awkward Recovery**

My body kept drinking tea of it's own accord, while I desperately tried to scream out that I should get home. After a final sip, the voice appeared again.

"Raven...where do I go from here? I can't go to foster care, It'd destroy me completely. I can't go to my sister, she'd probably kill me."

"That's what Robin was discussing with that social worker. I think by now he's probably convinced her to let you stay here, with us."

"Does that mean I'd have to become a Titan?"

Raven almost nodded, before she sighed and put down her mug. "Only if you want to. If you don't you'd stay here and do...whatever while we were gone."

"That seems like it'd be awfully boring. I'll probably join to stay busy."

"Then Cyborg will have to give you a physical, and Robin will have to determine your strengths and weaknesses, so he can train you right."

"That's fine..." then it clicked what Raven said, and I snapped my gaze to her.

"A p-p-physical?! I-I-I s-s-s-s-swear I-I'm f-f-f-f-fine!"

Raven's eyebrows rose at the return of my stutter, indicating I'd somehow recovered from my shock. "Yes," she said in her quiet monotone. "A physical. As in, Cyborg has to check your health and sees if you're healthy enough to be a Titan."

"I k-k-k-k-know w-w-w-w-w-what a p-p-p-physical is!" I managed.

"Why so worried then?" She queried. So did a quick once-over of me, trying to find something wrong with me. I fiddled with my shirt uncomfortably.

"W-w-w-w-w-well..."

The other Titans chose that moment to return to the tower. I was about to sigh in relief, when Cyborg decided to get straight to the point.

"Lucas wants to join the Titans?"

Raven nodded, and he sighed quietly. "Alright Lucas, come with me. The sooner this is out of the way, the sooner we can get started on helping you with your stutter."

I didn't say anything. I knew it would be bad for a Hero to stutter, in a fight for example. But doing the physical right now? I fidgeted uncomfortably, twisting my shirt around without lifting it. Beast Boy picked up on my discomfort, but didn't seem to want to cut me any slack.

"Bro, either go with Cyborg right now, so we don't all see what you don't want us to see, or I will pull your shirt off right here, and Cyborg will begin the physical in front of everyone."

My brain seized, and I sat totally still. That was apparently the wrong answer, As Beast Boy shared a look with Starfire, and both walked over to me, gripped my shirt by the hem, and lifted quickly, revealing my torso to the Titans. I blushed so hard, you'd think I was a fresh Bell Pepper. Or maybe a Jalapeńo.

The Titans had various reactions to what they saw.

Cyborg's mouth dropped, but otherwise nothing happened. Beast Boy dropped his grip on my shirt, mouth hitting the floor, eyes watery for some reason. Raven's eyes bugged out, and her mouth opened and closed, like a fish out of water. Starfire's reaction was most disconcerting. She dropped my shirt, coupled her hands and brought them to her cheek, then looked at me with hearts for eyes, drool dangling from the corner of her mouth. Robin saw Starfire's reaction, looked at me, lifted his shirt and looked at his own torso, then glared at me with jealousy.

I will admit, my body is strange, warranting most of the reactions, but Star's and Robin's confused me.

Starting at my pants' waistline, which rode low because I have narrow hips and so was just barely above my groin, my "body hair" started. In reality, it wasn't hair, it was small plant roots embedded in my flesh, replacing hair, just like anywhere on my body. The roots climbed in a methodical fashion, branching constantly, and getting slimmer as it neared my belly button. Underlying the skin of my stomach was a six-pack, though not completely defined. My whole body being very skinny, the lack of fat made my muscles seem more defined than they really were. From my belly button, a tree-like design of interconnecting veins was visible, rising to right below my rib cage. Where my ribs would be on a non-plant human, were thin, branch-like lines. Instead of the usual twenty-four, due the thickness (or lack thereof), I had forty-eight. From each rib, a line extended, connected to the others, and traveled upwards to my collarbone. When they reached my clavicle, after having thickened as they traveled into one solid line, the line split in two and formed my collarbone. Everywhere you looked, if you could see the veins, they were green.

The group of teenagers ogled me for several minutes, before Cyborg shook his head and pulled his arm up, a small scanner appearing and running over my torso. After it ran over my chest and stomach twice, it flipped back into Cyborg's arm and beeped loudly, snapping everyone else out of their stupors.

When Starfire realized she was drooling, she wiped her chin quickly and looked at Robin with pure guilt. Beast Boy broke down crying, lamenting his lack of muscle. Cyborg was trying to get the readings on my "physical", and was apparently having trouble. Robin sulked in the corner, a storm cloud over his head, raining on him. Starfire floated over to him and crouched down, rubbing his back soothingly and whispering things to him. Raven quickly turned away and exited the room, presumably to go change into clothes that weren't turned into rags. I thought I saw a small blush on her face, but couldn't be sure.

As all this was going on, I quietly caught my shirt on my foot, and pulled it to me. Once I got it back on, I tried slinking out of the room without letting anyone know. Unfortunately, Robin shot his gaze at me with a fire burning in his eyes.

"Lucas, it's obvious you're healthy enough to join the Titans. So we're going to start training you right away!"

I 'meeped' quietly.

The four titans in the room recovered quickly with those words, then Starfire flew over to me, grabbed me by the hand, and dragged me out of the living room, down the hall, and into a large gym.

Off to one side was a massive weight set, a treadmill, and a combat dummy. The rest of the massive room was filled with roll-mats. So most of the room was open space, with cushioning on the floor so no-one would get hurt. Spars apparently happened often.

Starfire let me go, but pushed me onto the mats, indicating the Titans didn't just evaluate you, they watched you in a combat situation with no preparation.

I turned to protest, but a green-gloved fist flew at me. I quickly threw myself backwards, barely dodging the attack. Following my momentum, I tucked into a backwards roll, then came up in a Judo stance. Robin looked at me with a critical eye.

"You're reaction time is on par with Raven's."

I said nothing. He shrugged and settled into a Karate stance.

 _Oh crap._ I thought. He lunged at me in a flurry of limbs. Combing a bunch of different martial arts couldn't have been easy, but Robin made it look effortless. I really only knew Judo, and it was mostly a defensive style.

I started off ok. He started with a right chop, which I blocked, and thrust my arm out, landing a palm strike on his left abdominal. He looked surprised for a moment before his face settled into an emotionless mask, and he sped up his strikes. From then, I only managed to block every third attack, and I didn't manage to counter at all. Robin was merciless. Chops, kicks, punches, knees, elbows, headbutts. He threw everything at me, and I was getting battered, like a small shrub in a hurricane. Though they didn't really hurt, they showed me just how far above my level Robin was. I wasn't surprised, but it hurt my pride that after all the time I put into learning Judo, my defense was ultimately useless. Then Robin rubbed salt into the wound.

"Come on, Lucas. Is this the best you can do? Where's that power I saw earlier? Was that just a fluke?"

My eyes must have flashed, because suddenly Robin looked a little worried. I blocked his punch, then bolted in before he could pull back his arm to block. I sent out a palm strike to his gut. He doubled over for a second, then launched backwards, a look of utter surprise on his face. When he hit the ground, he rolled. When he finally stopped, he stood shakily, a maniacal grin on his face.

"So, you speed up when you get mad. Good to know." he reached behind his back and whipped out his bo-staff. He spun it over his head expertly, then snapped it to a ready stance in front of him.

"H-hey! I don't h-have a w-w-weapon!" I cried out.

Robin smiled maliciously. "That's _your_ problem." then he charged me. He swung the staff quickly, and I just barely managed to dodge each attack. The extra length allowed me to react before he brained me.

Robin quickly moved from a left sweep, into a downward strike. I yanked back, but the end of his weapon caught my shirt, ripping it in half, once again revealing my torso. I heard cheering from the side.

"Yay! Robin is winning!"Starfire called out.

"Get him dude! Come on! The new guy shouldn't be shown mercy!" Yelled Beast Boy.

"BOOO-YAH!" Cyborg shouted loudly.

"You guys realize Lucas has basically kept even footing with Robin this whole time, right?" Raven said calmly. _When did she get here?_

"I think there's a chance he might be able to tie, or even beat, Robin here." That sent a thrill through me, before it was squished.

"No way Rae! He couldn't even block Robin earlier!" Beast Boy said. That hurt.

Robin took advantage of my slight distraction, and feinted a sweep, but turned it into a jab, hitting me in the chest with enough force to send me rolling. That would hurt in the morning. Only when I shakily got to my feet did I realize my shirt was ruined.

"Hey! That was my favorite shirt!" Robin just smirked haughtily. My chlorophyll started to boil. Ok, that sounded weird. Maybe I should just say blood. I shrugged off my ruined shirt, revealing my muscular back. I heard a wolf whistle, then some laughter, and out of the corner of my eye, noticed a few more people had shown up in the room, but I didn't have time to see who. All I knew was there were several girls, an just as many guys.

"Should have dodged better then," Robin said nonchalantly. Now I was starting to get REALLY mad. I growled quietly and willed vines to spread from my elbows. I heard shocked gasps, but ignored them. The vines moved of their own will into my hands, shaping themselves to whatever they saw fit. In my right hand, a long blade of grass and leaves appeared, looking razor sharp, and perfectly balanced. In my left, the vines twisted into the shape of a war-axe. The vines formed the handle, stiffening into a solid grip, while leaves formed the blade, again razor sharp. Both weapons felt perfect in my hand, and the vine grip wrapped around my wrists, latching them to me. I knew instinctively I wouldn't lose them unless I wanted to.

I shifted my weight, putting the sword forward and across my body diagonally, and the axe just behind me, visible to Robin, but only just, the blade facing away from my body. My legs were spread slightly, toes facing outward, knees slightly bent.

"WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED?!" a feminine voice called out.

Whispers ensued as Robin looked at me blankly.

"How did you do that?" he asked. I said nothing.

One spectator decided to try to psych me out. "Those things are made of plants, right?" a few murmurs of the affirmative followed. "Then Robin should be fine! Who ever heard of plants cutting something or being able to fight back?" a few laughs at this.

"You shouldn't judge a book by its' cover, Speedy. You never know what this guy is capable of." Two voices said simultaneously. Raven's I recognized, but the other sounded slightly high-pitched. I'd heard it before, but couldn't place it at the moment,

Robin decided enough was enough and charged at me, swinging his staff in a blur of attacks.

He looked genuinely surprised when I managed to block every one somehow. After several failed attacks, and successful counter-attacks by me, he brought his staff down in a vicious overhead chop, but I caught his attack with my weapons crossed in an X. He snarled and continued to push down, but his weapon stayed where it was. I smirked lightly, then kicked out underneath my crossed weapons.

I didn't know _where_ this battle fury was coming from, or the knowledge, but I didn't really care. I felt more alive than I ever had before. I was in my element. My foot connected with Robin's chest, and the pressure disappeared from my weapons. I snapped them to the side, then spun quickly, lifting my leg and hitting Robin in the side of the head with a vicious round-house. He flew to the side, landing with a solid _thunk._

I stood there, waiting in my stance, as he slowly got up, then fell to his knees clutching his head. He looked at me groggily. I finally noticed his appearance. Robin was covered in a sheen of sweat, his outfit cut to ribbons, with several of those gashes accompanied by a thin line of blood on his skin. I, however, didn't even feel winded. No sweat poured from my body in rivulets. No staff marks marred my body. I looked at my blades. On the long-sword, one edge was coated in a thin layer of blood. The axe, though to a lesser degree, had a similar appearance.

Robin stood shakily, and dropped his staff.

"I concede."

Shocked silence followed his declaration, as everyone, even me, tried to process what had just happened. Robin then promptly collapsed, gasping for breath.

That caught everyone's attention. Starfire and Speedy, whom I recognized from the time Control Freak tested the Titans East, rushed forward and lifted Robin's prone form over their shoulders, carrying him out. Probably to the infirmary.

The next thing I knew, three people were standing in front on me. One was about Robin's height, and dressed in a red outfit, a lightning bolt surrounded by a white circle on his chest. Kid Flash.

The other two were obviously twins. They were the same height, which barely came to my waist, and were both dressed in white suits. One had a plus sign on his chest, while the other had a minus sign. Mas y Menos, the ion twins as I called them.

Deciding to be polite, I bowed to all three, then spoke to the spanish-speaking twins first.

 **A/N: I will put the bits where characters speak another language in italics, as copy/ paste doesn't work right, and I can't find where to change the language setting.**

" _Hello, little sirs, it's an honor to make your acquaintance."_ their eyes lit up, then they spoke in unison.

 _"You speak Spanish?!"_

 _"Yes, not perfectly, but enough to hold a decent conversation."_

The little men cheered, and I turned to Kid Flash. Before I could say anything though, I saw the small mob of heroes racing forward to talk to me.

I flinched and gripped my weapon handles tighter as the mob descended.


	8. Chapter 8: Stutterless Lucas

**A/N: Ok, the end of the last chapter seemed pretty weird, right? The quiet, shy, stuttering Lucas beats Robin in a match? MADNESS! But fear not my dear readers! It shall be explained! And, you'll notice he kinda sucked in hand-to-hand combat. He'll get better, but only just. And no, he will not be able to beat anyone at will with the sword/ axe combo. He only beat Robin through a combination of adrenaline, newly awakened battle fury, and the fact that he's studied the Titans for a few years, not to figure out how to beat them, but to figure out how to be more like them. Also, this AU follows the same timeline as the CN canon.**

 **Chapter 8: Stutterless Lucas, A Passionate Warrior**

The group of thirteen teenagers descended upon me, asking a million questions at once. I couldn't discern what anyone was saying. I could barely tell the people apart. Mas and Menos jumped excitedly into a large luchadora's arms. Pantha. They whispered into her ears on either side, and her eyes bugged out as she looked at me in surprise.

Kid Flash appeared at the side of a girl with pink hair tied up in a sort of U shape, and in a gothic dress. When she looked at me, I noticed her eyes where pink and her pupils were slits. I crinkled my brow in confusion. Wasn't Jinx a villain working for HIVE? Before I could pose the question, Hotspot appeared in front of me, powered up.

"Hey, man. How did you do that? Where'd the weapons come from? What's up with the vines?" Everyone quieted down, looking at me expectantly. Vines grew out of my hips, forming holsters for my weapons, and I sheathed them, willing the handles to release their hold on my wrists.

"None. Of. Your. Damn. Business." I ground out with a small glare. He glared back, but said nothing.

 _Odd,_ I thought. _My stutter is gone. Shouldn't that take years of practice and speech-therapy? And that feeling,_ I shuddered in pleasure at the memory, and a feral smile appeared on my face. Every one of the heroes took a quick step back. _I don't know where that feeling came from. Or, for that matter, that insane power, but I don't really care! It feels like something has finally awoken within me!_

Raven stepped forward, holding something dark grey. I looked at her in confusion, before I recognized my hoodie. I snapped my gaze down, finally realizing I was shirtless in front of a group of people I wasn't related to. I turned pepper green, then quickly snatched my jacket and put it on, covering my torso.

Most of the girls let out disappointed huffs, crossing their arms and looking away moodily, blushes adorning their cheeks. All the guys just laughed.

"Oh man! In battle, a fearless warrior! In conversation? A stuttering introvert!" Aqualad laughed out, clutching his stomach. Every other guy present in the room joined him in laughter. The girls who'd huffed sadly when I put my jacket on sent them death-glares.

"Hey, Aqualad? Shut the fuck up, before I put you in the same condition as Robin," I said quietly. But apparently, everyone heard me. The guys stopped laughing, and the girls just stared at me, a few of them lustfully for some reason.

Raven looked at me with her eyebrows raised. "Lucas, what happened to your stutter? It was there a few minutes ago..."

I shrugged. "Don't know. Don't care. Wanted it gone forever. Couldn't afford speech therapy in addition to regular therapy."

Two forms suddenly siddled up to me on either side. Two very _feminine_ forms.

"So," the one on the right whispered seductively in my ear. "Your name is Lucas? You can call me Argent."

I shuffled uncomfortably and slid my arms out of their grips. Turns out Wonder Girl was a shameless flirt...and a c-cup. I shook my head a little.

"Nice to meet you Argent. And you too, Wonder Girl." her eyes flashed happily that I knew who she was. "But, really, I need to find some food, then take a shower." That was the wrong thing to say, which I discovered a moment later.

"Oh? Looking for food huh? I know this great little Chinese place down on Turn Avenue. Best fried duck in Jump City," Said Wonder Girl quickly. Argent quickly shoved her out of the way.

"Nah, you look more like a sushi guy. Wanna come with me and find a place?" She batted her eyes at me prettily, her arms twined around each other in front of her body, squeezing her breasts together.

At the word 'sushi' Aqualad had gagged and clutched his throat, looking like he died. I was spared having to answer Argent when Raven piped up.

"You guys do remember that it's the yearly reunion tonight, and we've been making food all week for this?"

"Really? The Titans have a reunion?" I asked, my head cocked to the side and my arms crossed. I heard several small shouts of "Kawaii!" from the girls, and a few mutterings of "He just HAD to be attractive" from the grumbling males. Raven nodded.

"This is the first year. We did this to commemorate the fall of the Brotherhood of Evil." I nodded quickly, accepting this answer, though I had not a fuckin' clue as to what she was talking about. Then I registered the second part of her earlier.

"How much food did you say you made?"

"Enough for everyone here to have a weeks' worth of left overs when they leave." At Raven's answer, several of the guys whooped happily, and the girls muttered under their breaths. Mostly things about diets.

"Come on guys! To the Buffet!" Speedy was back, and he led the rallying cry. The boys all cheered loudly, then bolted for the door in a large mob. The girls followed calmly after them, chatting amongst themselves. Before I knew it, I was alone in the gym, with a million questions, and none of the answers. I was also forgotten. Again. Well, almost forgotten.

As I stepped toward the door, a pale hand grabbed my elbow and whipped me around. I now stood face-to-face with Argent. She looked at my face fully, licking her lips slightly, before leaning in with her lips puckered slightly, her eyes half-closed.

"What the fuck are you doing?" My words made her snap her eyes open and look at me.

"I'm trying to kiss you. Duh. I know those vibes you sent me. You're looking for someone to hold tonight right?" I cocked one eyebrow and opened my mouth to answer, but she cut me off.

"Well, handsome, _I'm_ here. And why wait?" she made her point by pulling me towards her, trying to direct one hand to her butt, and the other to he breast. I pulled out of her grip gently.

"Look, Argent. I don't know what you're talking about. I didn't send you any vibes, or whatever. Hell, I just met you. I generally like to be friends with someone before attempting to play tonsil-hockey with them." Argent looked extremely confused, so I exited the room quickly, following the sounds of a party absently while deep in thought.

 _That was very strange. Girls have never looked at me as attractive before. There are two possibilities I can think of as to why Argent would think I somehow flirted with her. A) She's delusional and her brain registered a fact that doesn't exist, in this case, that I wanted her to kiss me. Or B) my Pheromones and Hormones have been changed by...whatever happened to me...causing her to be attracted to me._

I frowned at that idea, but it was plausible. I felt... different. Stronger. Slightly more confident. And since my body exudes chemicals according to what I feel, I couldn't rule the possibility out. I continued to ponder this until I reached the sound of a teenage party going on. I entered and looked around. I was back in the living room, but it looked completely different. Balloons and streamers hung from the ceiling, while confetti littered the floor. Pushed up against the kitchen island was a very large table set out with any kind of food you could want; chicken, ribs, burgers, hot-dogs, tofu, and pizza to name but a few.

By the time I entered the room, most of the guys had gotten their plates and were spread out across the room, eating, talking, and laughing. The girls were going through a line, getting considerably less food.

As I looked around at the party decorations, I heard a shuffle next to me.

"Amazing what magic can do in such a short time, isn't it?" Raven said as she lifted a small party cup to her lips. I nodded.

I looked at her and was about to say something, when my stomach roared loudly in protest. My nose smelt food, and my stomach wasn't getting any. Raven looked at me with amusement, then commented.

"Go ahead and eat, we can talk later."

I nodded, cheeks burning, and moved over to the now-empty buffet table. I grabbed a plate and began stacking it with as much food as possible. Which is a lot, considering I've always had amazing balance with anything. I stacked everything in reach onto my plate, not being picky. Once the pile reached my neck, from my lower rib-cage, I decided that was enough for now. I turned around and sat down in the booth I had seen earlier.

At the loud _clunk_ from my plate, a few people around me turned to locate the noise, Raven, Beast Boy, and Aqualad among them. Everyone who looked and saw my plate choked on whatever they had in their mouths, be it liquid or solid. Once Beast Boy managed to not die, he called me out.

"Woah dude! Leave some for the rest of us! It's not like you NEED that much food in one sitting!" Raven snorted and muttered something.

"Actually," I said. "I do need this much food in one sitting." he looked at me skeptically.

I laughed humorlessly. "You ever tried Photosynthesizing for twenty-four hour a day, seven days a week? It ain't easy Beastie. Turning Carbon Dioxide into Oxygen requires energy. Energy comes from food. See where this is going?" I picked up something, a tofu dog I think, and took a bite, chewed quickly, swallowed and repeated the process. Aqualad managed to speak to me while I ate.

"You photosynthesize?" I nodded . "As in, plant makes Oxygen from our breath photosynthesize?" I nodded again, finishing the tofu dog, and picking up a large slice of pizza covered in pepperoni, bell-peppers, anchovies, mushrooms, and pineapples. Aqualad looked slightly green when he saw the anchovies, but managed not to gag.

"Ok, first, how can you photosynthesize, second, how can you eat all that stuff at once without gagging?" The others around, who were listening to the whole conversation, nodded vigorously at these questions. I took the three seconds necessary to chew the last bit of the pizza slice, then swallowed and explained.

"Bro, first off, I'm half plant. It makes sense for me to be able to make oxygen. Or didn't you notice the plant vines growing out of my flesh back in the gym?" a look of annoyance flashed across his face. "Second, when you have to basically eat your body weight at each meal to make up for the energy of converting Carbon Dioxide, and you're so broke you can barely afford the therapy needed to keep you sane while at the same time feeding that appetite, you learn not to be picky about what you eat. If it's digestible and it won't make me puke, I'll eat it."

to emphasize my point, I took hold of a tofu burger, another slice of the same pizza, a sushi roll, and some lo mein noodles, put everything on the burger bun, squashed it down, then took a large bite. After I chewed and swallowed, I gave Aqualad a sideways look, grinning slightly.

"Your friend was delicious by the way."

He fainted while everyone else within earshot turned a terrible shade of green (Beast Boy turned a more violent shade) and covered their mouths, trying not to puke. I laughed loudly, drawing the attention of everyone else in the room.

Cyborg walked over. "What's going on guys?" then he saw my plate. He was about to say something, when Raven cut him off.

"Don't ask. Please." Cyborg looked confused, but nodded slowly.

Then Beast Boy seemed to recover from his nausea. He put on a devilish smirk and looked between Cyborg and me.

"Well, Cy. Looks like we might have a new resident big eater." I looked around in confusion, but everyone else seemed to understand what he was getting at. A loud wave of "Oh shit"s went around the room, then Cyborg sat down in the booth across from me. Someone set a plate piled high with food in front of him. As high as mine was. Cyborg looked at me with his eyes on fire.

"Lucas! I challenge you to an eating contest!" I looked at him blankly, then blinked slowly.

"You're on!" at my proclamation, loud cheers rang out.

A sigh cut through the crowd, then Raven stepped forward, suddenly wearing a ref outfit under her cloak. "I can't believe this. The rules are simple, keep eating whatever comes in front of you until one of you concedes." I had to admit, I almost laughed at Raven in a referee outfit, it just seemed hilarious.

Cyborg and I nodded and looked t the food in front of us. Raven raised her hand, then slashed it down. "Begin!" Cyborg immediately began shoving food down his gullet, chewing furiously. I looked down at my plate, and Speedy stepped forward.

"Whatsa matter Luc? Intimidated?" He laughed and pointed at me.

"No," I said calmly. " I just thought I'd be nice and give him a head start. But since you seem to think that isn't necessary, I'll start eating."

To punctuate my sentence, I too started plowing through the food in front of me. I, however, chewed only once or twice before swallowing, and so quickly caught up to, and then surpassed Cyborg. Within moments I was out of food, so I pushed my plate to the side as someone placed another in front of me, piled just as high as the first. I immediately began tearing into it. Cyborg finally finished his plate and was given another, but he seemed to be slowing down. He made it half way through his second, while I was almost done with my third, before something actually happened.

As Cyborg shoved a burger down his throat, trying to match my furious demolition of the food, he stopped, looking like he was about to heave chunks. Everyone was looking at me in disgust, except Starfire, who had appeared with a heavily bandaged Robin around the time I started my third plate. She was looking at me with stars for eyes. I stopped eating.

"What?" Cyborg pointed at my plate, and I looked down, seeing it was covered in strange looking food. Obviously no-one expected me to actually eat this stuff.

"What's the big deal?" I asked in confusion. "The rules say to eat whatever is put in front of me. This was put in front of me, and it really isn't that bad." Starfire 'squeed' happily, then began jumping up and down, clapping her hands. Cyborg dropped the remains of his burger, raised his hands and said loudly.

"If that's gonna be on my next plate (if I make it that far) I quit!"

Loud gasps ensued, but I shrugged them off and continued eating. A few people actually vomited. Starfire scooted into the booth next to me, talking excitedly.

"Do you truly enjoy the food?!" I nodded around some kind of squishy cake-like thing with tentacles. "Oh joy! No others will join me as I eat the food of Tameran!"

"I don't see why not," I said with my mouth full. Then I swallowed and continued. "This is great! Once you get past the initial 'moving things stage' it doesn't exactly fight you."

Starfire nodded. "Exactly! The others will not join me, because they think the food will eat them!" I snorted and finished off the plate, then pushed it away sighing.

I stood and stretched as Starfire went to help Robin. Obviously, they were a thing. As everyone discussed things around the room, ranging from what had been happening in their separate zones to my grand entrance to the Titans. Raven approached me, back in her leotard. I turned to her.

"Hey is there a spare room I can crash in tonight? And... I need some clothes and stuff for a shower. Plus a toothbrush a toothpaste." Raven pulled out a backpack. MY backpack.

"Beast Boy packed your things and a few changes of clothes before he left your house. We can go back tomorrow and get whatever else you need." I nodded slowly, pain in my eyes, as I took the pack.

"Thanks," I mumbled.

"I'm surprised you're not taking this harder, to be honest." She seemed concerned.

I shook my head sadly. "Death is part of life. She was dying anyway." I noticed her look of mild confusion, so I clarified. "Mom had lung cancer. She only had a few months to live, but she didn't want treatment. My family has always believed in letting nature run it's course."

"So...your sister actually saved her more suffering?"

Rage flashed in my eyes. "No," I growled. "She didn't know about Mom's cancer. She killed her just to prove she could. To get a message to me. And I. Will. Pay. Her. Back."

With that, I threw the bag over my shoulder and stalked out of the room to find a shower. I barely heard Raven call after me.

"Third down on the right! It has it's own bathroom!"


	9. Chapter 9: Old Friend, New Pain

**Chapter 9: Old Friend, New Pain**

I woke to the sound of muffled groaning, the scent of jasmine, and the sight of a strange room. I lay in the bed I was in for a few moments, trying to remember everything.

 _I remember that I'm in Titans Tower. I remember that my sister murdered my mother, and left her body for me as a promise that I'm next. I remember some kind of contest... two actually now I think about it. The last thing I recall was storming away from Raven and taking a shower. I must have fallen asleep after that._

I looked out the window, to see the sun just beginning to peek over the horizon. So the room I was in faced East. Good to know, I guess. I sat up, rubbing the sleep from my eyes. I stood and stretched, then got my jeans from last night on, deciding to forego a shirt this morning. At this point, I really didn't care if people saw me shirtless for some odd reason. As I padded out into the hall barefoot, barely making a sound at all, I noticed Heroes strewn about the hallway. Some were sitting against the wall, slumped over. Others were halfway into a room, their legs or torso showing in the hall, and the opposite end inside the door. A few were splayed out in various positions in the middle of the floor. I maneuvered around them quietly, not wanting to wake anyone.

The closer I got to the living room, the more heroes I saw, and the more things appeared as though a hurricane had swept through. The destruction confused me. Red cups were everywhere, some still filled with liquids, confetti, streamers and popped balloons were littering the floor. I even saw a few holes in the walls.

When I _finally_ made it to the main hall, the door slid open with a small _whoosh_ and I beheld the carnage. Robin was folded over the back of the couch, which had been over-turned. Cyborg was sitting at the dinner booth, clutching what looked like a cup of coffee like his life depended on it and groaning to himself. Beast Boy's legs poked out from under the table. Starfire wasn't in the room. Raven was in the process of making tea.

"What happened?" I asked as I approached the free-standing kitchenette. Raven got out another tea mug for me before answering.

"After you left the party, Speedy and Aqualad somehow got their hands on liquor, and Beast Boy got beer. Everything went down- hill from there."

I knitted my eyebrows. "Aren't I the oldest one here?" Raven nodded slowly.

"I'm certainly not twenty-one. So how did these guys get ahold of alcohol? Everyone here is a minor." Raven shrugged and removed to tea pot from the stove before it whistled, to avoid everyone's loud gripes, which would cause more problems.

"You don't seem to be nursing a hang-over by the way," I noted quietly as I let my tea steep.

"I don't drink. Alcohol lowers inhibitions and makes emotion run rampant. In my case, that would be very bad." I nodded, then took a small sip of my tea. I also finally located the source of the smell of Jasmine.

"Jasmine tea, with..." I took another, slightly larger sip, then started. "With red elderberry extract?" Raven nodded calmly.

"How the hell did you get red elderberry extract?"

"I grow them." My mouth dropped open. Raven noticed and snapped a look at me.

"What's so weird about that?" she asked with some hostility.

"Nothing," I said quickly, closing my mouth and shaking my head. "It's just... Red Elderberries are _extremely_ rare. Plus, you don't seem much like the gardening type."

She shrugged slightly. "And you don't seem much like the deadly blade-master type."

"Touché."

"And it took me several years to find a few berries to start cultivating. And even then, only one actually grew."

Conversation between us cut off as everyone started waking up and trickling into the hall, grabbing either coffee or some tea, with Raven's approval. I sat there quietly, drinking my tea, watching everyone avoid making any loud noises. I wanted to laugh my ass off. Finally, someone spoke up, and to me no less.

"Hey, Luc. You missed one hell of a party!" Speedy said, sipping some coffee and holding and ice-pack to his head. "I bet I could have drunk you under the table!" I snorted into my mug. Speedy sent me a small look.

"What?"

Yeah, good luck with _that_ , Speedy," I responded.

"Huh?"

I sighed and put down my mug. "I can't get drunk, bro." Speedy, and the nearby Aqualad, scoffed in disbelief.

"I have a higher tolerance for alcohol than anyone here!" Said the Atlantian. "And I still got wasted."

I shrugged. "It's not about tolerance for me. Alcohol is just very strong sugar. I use sugar in Photosynthesis, so the alcohol never really affects me. I just make more Oxygen, or I store it for later. But, like I said, I can't get drunk."

The two male heroes, who apparently held something against me, because they'd been trying to antagonize me since I met them, slumped over, rain-clouds above their heads and shadows along their bodies.

"Another thing he beats us at..." they muttered dejectedly in unison.

I moved away and put my tea mug in the sink. Everyone just basically ignored me, instead choosing to nurse their various hot drinks.

 _Some things never change._ I thought. I reached the sink at the same time as Raven, and she decided to bring up the most pressing issue of the day.

"Do you want someone to go with you back to your house? In case your sister is there."

I stiffened momentarily, then sighed in defeat and slumped my shoulders.

"That's probably the best option at this point. Get whoever you decide should come with me. I'll be waiting outside." Raven nodded as I walked away.

Instead of using the door and stairs like, oh say, a _normal_ person, I went to the window, which had been smashed open by something. Probably the coffee table, seeing as it was missing.

I felt like trying something new. Something crazy. Because hey, what's life without a few suicidal thirty-story window jumps?

As my feet left the floor and I began my free-fall towards the ground several hundred feet below, I heard several alarmed shouts from through the shattered glass. I ignored them and spread my limbs, allowing the wind to catch me and slow the fall a little. Then, quite suddenly, I tucked in my arms and legs, diving towards the ground at a very fast pace. The alarmed shouts grew louder. Speedy's stuck out to me.

"He's suicidal! What the fuck?! Why didn't someone stop him?"

When I was a hundred feet away from becoming a green grease-spot on Titan Island, I threw my hands down in front of me. Jungle Vines sprouted quickly and raced to the ground. As they struck, they grew more, interconnecting and weaving themselves into a strong structure. I slid into the ramp I'd made belly-first, and my momentum carried me through the arc. A gradual slope curved down, then shot back upwards, angling out over the water. As I left the ramp, I threw my weight forward, turning my would-be belly-flop into a front-flip-turned-cannonball. I whooped loudly as I fell toward the sea.

After I hit the water with a huge splash, I resurfaced and tread water, looking up at the specks that were the Titans, standing in the shattered window.

"ARE YOU FUCKING CRAZY?! YOU NEARLY GAVE US HEART ATTACKS YOU DOUCHE!" Shouted the voice of Speedy.

"GOOD TO KNOW YOU CARE! NOW GET YOUR ASSES DOWN HERE! THE WATER IS FINE!" I shouted back. Shouts of outrage blasted down to me.

"WE ARE NOT JUMPING OUT OF.." Robin's voice was cut off as a green blur shot past him and jumped out thee window, yelling loudly.

"OHHHHH YEEEEAAAAAAHHHHHHH!" Screamed Beast Boy as he plummeted toward my impromptu slide. He hit the entrance on his back, then shot out over me, twisting into a head-first dive. After he resurfaced, he laughed, then began swimming in circles. Soon after, more people came down the slide as they either jumped to avoid being pushed, or were pushed by the others. The only people who didn't end up in the water were Cyborg, Robin, and Raven. Raven, instead teleported them to the water's edge.

"Lucas," She sighed. "When you said you would be waiting outside, I thought you meant on dry land, and by the stairs, not a suicide dive out the window." I laughed a little.

"I don't know, Raven. Something just came over me." I swan to the shore and got out, shaking out my hair. "I felt like something was missing. I felt it there for a second as I grew the ramp, but I don't know..." I trailed off and shook my head sadly.

Raven looked puzzled for a moment, before shaking her head and calling out to few people.

"Speedy, Wildabeest, Jinx. Come on, we're taking Lucas back to his house now."

The three heroes exited the water, then Jinx made and observation that no one else had.

"How are we getting off the island?"

Speedy perked up quickly and turned to Cyborg. "Hey can I,"

"No." Cyborg cut him off quickly. "I only let licensed drivers take the T-Car, and none of you have a license." I coughed discreetly. Cyborg looked at me.

I pulled out my diver's wallet and opened it, turning the inside for everyone to see. In the side slots were several cards. The first, and most noticeable, was a platinum VISA card. The next was a GameStop Power-Up Rewards Pro card. The rest weren't showing enough to really discern what they were. But the centerfold of the wallet was a California State Driver's License. The head shot of me had my hair naturally parted slightly, almost covering my left eye. My Dark brown hair (cough roots cough) fell to midway down my neck, and my bangs were just above the bridge of my nose. My Light Green eyes held a small smile in them, even if my face was an emotionless mask. Three different reactions ensued.

Cyborg, Beast Boy, Robin, and Aqualad all stared at the wallet for a moment, their jaws around their collarbones, before saying in unison. "You drive?!"

Most of the girls (except Raven, Starfire, and Jinx) ogled the Credit Card, then shouted, also in unison, "You have a Platinum Credit Card?!"

Speedy had by far the funniest reaction. He fell to all fours, crying, the thundercloud once again above his head. He wailed in despair. "Why does he have everything?!"

I snickered quietly and put away my wallet. Once it was gone, the focus shifted to me, instead of my wallet. Cyborg remained quiet a moment, then held out a set of keys. I looked at them curiously. Then I raised my quizzical look to Cyborg.

"The keys to the T-car. You're licensed, so I'm willing to let you borrow it."

"I don't want to borrow it." Shocked gasps followed from every other male present.

"Then why'd you show me your driver's license?"

"You said no-one had one. I just wanted to prove you wrong." I was still trying to get over my recent lack of stutter. It was just too weird after having one my whole life.

"That still doesn't solve the problem of us being on an island," Jinx pointed out. I turned to her, then shrugged and waded into the water.

"What are you doing?" she asked in annoyance.

"Swimming," I answered. "Raven can fly, but I can't. Plus I need the exercise."

Raven ended the argument by grabbing the four of us with her powers, then lifting us and flying quickly across the bay to the docks twelve blocks from my house.

"There," she said. "Problem solved."

We got up from where she dropped us, Wildabeest looking nauseous. Or about as nauseous as a half-human half-animal guy with horns can look anyway. Speedy drew and knocked an arrow, immediately on alert for any sign of danger. I rose and started towards my house, before remembering I was barefoot.

"Aw shit," I muttered. "I'll have to remember to grab my boots." I continued on. The walk to my house was uneventful, with no-one talking. When we made it, I tested the front door and found it unlocked. I huffed and entered.

 _Apparently they didn't see the spare key hanging inside the door._

I stepped from the entrance hall into the living room. The furniture was overturned violently. Apparently, Ivy came home for more than just a friendly chat with mom. She wanted something. I continued through to my room, Jinx following me while the rest of the heroes spread out through the house, making sure it was empty.

As Jinx and I stepped into my room, she let out a low whistle, which I ignored. I crossed quickly to my small (kind of) walk-in closet. I grabbed a pair of dry jeans, and changed into them. I threw the wet ones out the closet door. I rummaged through the drawer that was in the corner, and pulled out a pair of mountain socks. I quickly pulled them on, then located and donned my Combat boots. Once they were laced up, I shuffled through my shirts, finally finding one that seemed to go well with my ripped, faded pants.

I exited the closet to see Jink looking around at my room.

Pushed up against one wall was a small futon, the blanket messy and crumpled. Adorning the walls were items that pointed to my various interests. One whole wall was devoted to my posters, both for videogames and for music. The three largest posters were for Disturbed, from their Asylum album, the original Assassin's Creed, and the Death-Metal band Sammael, the poster being the cover for their single, "In Gold We Trust."

The rest of the game posters ranged from Pokémon, to Halo, To Mass Effect. The music posters comprised of mostly Disturbed, with some Korn, KISS, Nickelback, and Skillet thrown in. There was not a single space on the wall free, and almost none of the posters were tacked on straight.

On the next wall, floor to ceiling shelves held potted plants of all kinds. Flowers, weeds, creepers, small shrubs, even a bonsai tree.

The final wall also had shelves, but not as many. And these were covered in various forms of arts-and-crafts. Models, puzzles, paint-by-numbers, home-made dream-catchers, wood carvings and projects. And under the wall-mounted shelves, sat a long bookcase that spanned the whole length of the wall, and rose four shelves high. The thing was chocked full of books, mostly fiction, but there were a few different religious texts and reference books thrown in. A Christian Bible, Jewish Torah, and Muslim Koran were laid out on the top of thee case, side by side.

While she took everything else at face value, the religious texts seemed to confuse Jinx.

"Why do you have three different kinds of religious scripture? Do you follow them all?"

"No," I said. "I don't follow any of them." Now she looked REALLY confused.

"I don't have to follow the faith to find the message they attempt to convey meaningful, do I? Or the poetry moving, and the pictures beautiful. Just because I'm not one of their faithful, doesn't mean I can't seek to understand them a little better. My family has always held the belief that no faith holds all the answers, or knows the whole truth. We think that each religion or faith holds a small piece of the puzzle, and our job as humans on Earth is to find those pieces and fit them together to form a larger picture. In the meantime, we're each allowed to follow the faith that fits us best personally. It just happens that each of us most identify with the Druidistic Pagans of Ancient Europe."

Jinx opened her mouth slightly, then shut it again, then finally said, "So...what's that mean?"

"We believe that Gaia, the spirit of the Earth, gave a soul to each living being at the creation of life on this planet. And when we die, our spirit rejoins the Eternal Cycle, staying within Gaia's embrace for a few years with the other half of our being, our soul-mates I guess you could say, before being separated again and re-joining the physical world in a new body, to seek out our other half and find our purpose in our current lives."

Jink wrinkled her brow, but indicated for me to continue, sensing I wasn't quite done.

"Where most faiths believe if they pray hard enough, or show enough devotion, then their deity will hear them and grant whatever request they made. We believe She guides us subtly through the currents of nature, never intentionally interfering, but shaping us nonetheless."

"In other words, a 'go out and make shit happen instead of waiting for it to happen' mentality?" She clarified.

"Exactly. We were not meant to be handed our lives on a silver platter. We were meant to go out and toil for what we need, so that we truly appreciate what we have, instead of taking it for granted and always wanting more."

"That sounds really, really dull." I turned around to see Speedy leaning in the doorframe, an arrow loosely resting on his bow.

"Whatever, dude. I'm not going to make you believe something you don't want to believe." I turned around and reached under my futon, pulling out two duffel bags, a backpack, and three suit-cases. I took the two duffel bags to the closet, and began putting clothes in them. Once I had the bags full, leaving behind a good portion of the clothes my mom had bought me over the years, I zipped them up and left them by the door.

Next, I grabbed the backpack and went around the room, placing things that had sentimental value to great to leave behind. A picture of my family, before my sister flipped her lid and turned into a Super Villain, a small jar of my dad's ashes, some knick-knacks from distant relations around the country, none of whom I actually knew, and a small, dried jungle vine preserved in a hermetically sealed jar.

The vine was the first one I had ever controlled when my full powers manifested around the time I was seven.

 **Flashback- 10 Years Ago**

 _I was running around outside, playing with the family dog as Pam sat on the porch, reading a book and drinking lemonade. I would throw a stick as far as I could, and Zanga, our German Shepard, would run after it, trying to catch it before it hit the ground. Mom was inside making lunch,and Dad was in the garage, working on one of his carpentry jobs, making an ornate rocking-chair for Mrs. Fiddleston down the street._

 _"H-h-h-h-hey, Pam!" I called, trying to get my sisters' attention._

 _"Hmm?" she said, as she looked up from her romance novel._

 _"T-t-t-t-t-think I c-c-c-c-can throw this a-a-a-a-a-all the w-way to the t-t-t-tree-line?" I stuttered excitedly as I lifted the stick my dad had made for Zanga._

 _Pam laughed and closed her book. "If you can, little brother, then I'll give you Twenty dollars and show you where mom keeps the den keys."_

 _My eyes lit up at the keys part. I wasn't allowed in the Den. I didn't know why,but I wasn't. It was the only rule my parents had that had strict punishment if I broke it. I'd been badgering Pamela to help me get in there for two years, and she'd always said no._

 _I turned quickly and heaved for all I was worth. The stick stayed in my hand. I frowned at it, then tried again. The stick stayed in my hand. I shook my hand violently, keeping my hand open. The stick stayed attached to my palm._

 _"P-p-p-p-pam! H-h-h-h-h-help!" she was at my side in an instant, holding my arm steady as she looked at my hand. Then, suddenly, she let go, a look of shock on her face. I continued to try to get the stick out of my hand, shaking and throwing my arm everywhere violently, to no avail._

 _At this point, I did what any typical seven-year-old would do._

 _I broke down crying for my daddy. Don't ask me why I didn't call for my mom. I just never did. My dad was always the one I went to for help. Not because mom wouldn't help or anything, he just seemed the logical choice to me. Hell, I'd clung to_ _ **his**_ _leg my first day of school, which had kinda pissed mom off._

 _I fell back onto my butt, arm going limp with the stick still on my palm, bawling my eyes out, barely managing to get out the word 'Daddy' through my hysterics and my natural stutter._

 _A loud bang echoed from the garage, followed by a loud curse, then my dad appeared at the rear garage door, rubbing his wrist and looking around for the source of the noise. He zeroed in on my blubbering._

 _Dad bolted toward me, but Pam met him half-way. She said something I barely heard._

 _"He's growing up, dad."_

 _My father nodded in understanding, then moved around her and to my side. He knelt next to me and rubbed my back soothingly. His hands were calloused, but gentle._

 _"What's the matter, Lucas?" his voice was a deep, soothing baritone that reminded one of the deep jungle, or a warm summer's eve in Kentucky._

 _"T-t-t-t-the s-s-s-s-s-stick w-w-w-w-w-won't-t-t l-l-let g-go of m-m-m-me!" I wailed. All the commotion had drawn my mother from the kitchen. She saw me sitting there, Dad rubbing my back, and called out to him._

 _"Is Lucas okay, dear?"_

 _"He's fine, Sarah. He's just having trouble with Zanga not bringing the stick back to him!" My father was an excellent liar._

 _My mother nodded and went back inside, oblivious to the fact I had a stick in my hand, and Zanga was laying at my feet, whimpering as his master (me) broke down._

 _Dad turned back to me and gently lifted my hand to inspect Zanga's stick. He smiled slowly._

 _"Lucas, what do you feel in your arm right now?"_

 _I slowly stopped crying as I tried to process his question, and what my arm felt like. My dad was a patient man, but I didn't like to keep him waiting for answers. It made me feel like I betrayed him somehow._

 _"I-i-i-it f-feels l-l-like my a-a-arm is s-s-sore, and on f-f-fire, but i-i-it d-d-doesn't hurt." Dad nodded slowly._

 _"Good. Now, Lucas, I need you to focus on your hand," I furrowed my brow, but looked at my hand in deep concentration. "That's it, son. Now imagine that a rope is attached to your hand, wrapped around the stick." I looked at him in genuine confusion, but he just smiled and nodded encouragingly. I looked back at my hand and did as he asked. "Now, disconnect the rope."_

 _I visualized a scene from my favorite movie, 'The Return of the Gaelic Seamonster' a low-budget b-list movie not many people knew about, where a rope is snapped taut, then breaks from the strain of the monster pulling against it. The stick fell from my hand._

 _Dad picked it up and threw it for Zanga, then picked up something dark green from where it had landed. He turned to me and showed me a generic jungle vine._

 _"Welcome to the family, Lucas. Your training starts tomorrow. And there are only two rules."_

 _I looked at him with utter confusion, since I was already a part of the family, though he meant in a different way, which I didn't know at the time._

 _"Rule number one: Never use what I will teach you to beget harm on another. These abilities are meant only to defend."_

 _"A-a-a-and w-w-w-w-what's the s-s-second r-rule?" I asked._

 _"Don't ever, and I mean EVER, tell your mother."_

 **Flashback End**

So my mother had died not knowing about my powers, just as she had never known about my fathers'. And she thought Pam got her powers from some freak accident at college ( **A/N: *Cough actual canon cough*** ).

I placed the half-full backpack by the door, and turned to the bookcase with the suitcases in hand. I then began pulling books off their shelves and stacking them neatly in the suitcases, filling all three all the way, and still leaving about a third of the books behind. Then I turned to the poster wall, arms crossed against my chest and a analytical look on my face.

"What will I do with all of you?" I muttered to myself. I reached a decision, then walked over and removed my three biggest posters and two or three smaller ones. I rolled them carefully and put them into the backpack.

"Alright, I'm done in here. I just need a few things from the bathroom, then we can go." I rested my wrists on the pommels of my plant weapons, and exited the room.

"What about this?" I turned to ask what Speedy meant, and saw him holding a multi-CD case. My face hardened.

"Put it in the backpack."

He looked startled at the cold fury in my voice, but apparently didn't want it directed at him. He put the case in the bag. I stormed out of the room and down the hall, towards the bathroom. The only thing was, I had to pass the Den. Even after I came into my powers, Dad never let me in the Den. And after he died, Mom had basically blockaded the damn place.

As I stalked past, something urged me to stop. Be it instinct or influence, I slowed down to gaze longingly at the Den door, wondering what Dad had kept from me all these years, when I noticed something amiss.

The door wasn't latched.

I stepped forward cautiously. Call me paranoid, but years of being told not to enter this room had trained me to walk quickly past, or suffer some wrath. Plus, something just felt... _wrong._

Every step I took, it was like my dad's spirit was yelling at me to turn around, head back to the tower, forget about the Den. I reached the door, and pushed it gently. The feeling stopped, to be replaced with the warmth I'd always felt when dealing with Dad. But there was more. A sense of welcome. As though something in thee room recognized I should be here.

I pushed open the door with one hand, and heard a sound like dry leaves scraping over a hard stone. The door opened fully, revealing to me for the first time, the Den. And behind the door, stood two potted creepers. Honeysuckles.

Tears welled in my eyes, and I choked back a sob.

Honeysuckle was my dad's bond-plant. His signature. Just like Poison Ivy was Pam's.

These two plants were nearly dead. They were brown, shriveled, and the one on thee right was tipped over, revealing that their roots were nearly dust. I stepped over the thresh hold of the Den, and the Honeysuckles crawled across thee floor towards me, very slowly. They twined up my legs, met and climbed my torso, then my neck.

When they reached my face, they stopped. Then, gently, a single green new leaf sprouted, and curled softly against my cheek. My tears burst forth.

A final goodbye from my father.

As the leaf pulled away, it turned brown and shriveled. The Honeysuckles started turning to dust rapidly, starting with their roots. Just before the last vine crumbled, the leaf waved weakly at a dust-covered desk, with only an envelope on it. Then it to faded into dust and drifted away.

I stepped forward to the desk, tears falling freely down my face and small sobs escaping my throat.

I shakily picked up the envelope and blew the dust clear of it, revealing my father's neat, slanted script, spelling out one word.

The envelope was addressed to me.


	10. Chapter 10: A Violent Meltdown

**A/N: The final daily update. For now. This chapter will start with what's inside the envelope, and will explain a few things. Enjoy.**

 **Chapter 10: A Violent Meltdown**

 _Lucas,_

 _My son, if you are reading this, then I passed into Gaia's embrace and cannot tell you all you need to know. Though I hope this is not the case, I write this letter for you in case it comes to pass. As I write this, you are a mere week old,and so full of life, I know for a fact you have inherited my abilities, just as your sister did. Any child who can laugh so much and get a vicious guard dog to play with him so easily must have powers of some sort, and mine are the only option. Let me begin by saying, I did not want you to inherit the Will of Gaia. Seeing how it caused you sister to be alienated when people found out, and remembering my own experiences with it growing up, I sincerely hoped that you would be normal, like your mother._

 _Alas, it was not to be. And so, I write this letter in explanation of what will happen to you as you grow. For most of your young life, you will stutter, you will be shy, you will avoid people in general. I know, because it was that way for me, and my father, and his father before him. This is the curse of the males who carry the Will. Your sister got the better end of the root on that, as she will grow up charismatic and outgoing. But her positive attitude comes at a cost; she will not attain the power you will._

 _The women of the Will were meant to be shamans, the interpreters of Gaia's will. Figurehead leaders of the villages where the Inheritors were accepted. The men were meant to be the true strength. Where the women would appear to lead, the men would actually lead, by example. From the front. To that end, male Inheritors were to be warriors, defenders of those held precious. And so, we were given the battle-lust, at the cost of self-esteem in our youth._

 _Around the time of you Seventeenth year, something will happen to awaken your battle-lust. I don't know what, but that is when it always happens. Your basic hand-to-hand styles of combat won't work, and they will be pitiful. But weapons. Ah, that is what will raise you above others. If someone attacks you with a weapon, even in a spar, your battle-lust will awaken, and form the weapons you were meant to use, were we still a tribal and warring civilization. Mine was a Greatsword, your grandfathers, a single dagger. Each user would have a separate position to fill on the battlefield._

 _In that first fight, you will feel alive. You will feel strong. You will crush your opponent easily. After that, you will feel alive in battle and be able to see endless ways to change the tide of battle, but must hone your skills. And your stutter will disappear. Your pheromones will change, causing women to look at you with want._

 _As you grow stronger, women will find you more and more attractive. But only one person will catch your eye, and that person will not attempt to approach you in any way romantically. For some reason, they will be completely immune to your pheromones. You will know them when you find them. I did, and now you and your sister are in my world as well._

 _Soon after you form your weapons, you will still feel something missing, and you will do reckless things as an excuse to use your powers in an attempt to find out what that thing is._

 _Your bond-plant is searching for you. The generic jungle vine you will discover soon is not your signature. We men must find ours. The women are lucky, again, in that their bond plant is with them immediately upon birth if they possess the Will._

 _Once you discover what plant is meant to pair with you, that type will be easier to control anywhere you go. You will even be able to summon it where it shouldn't grow, and from your skin, just as with the jungle vine in your early years. Other plants will still respond to your will, but your bond-plant will do it without you having to consciously exert your will._

 _My advice is do not rely solely on your bond-plant or your weapons. Branch out to using the life around you, and attempt to develop you martial arts. Otherwise, when someone finds a way to counter your weapons or signature, you will be helpless._

 _That is enough on the subject of your powers though. I wish to give you some personal advice. After you awaken the battle-lust, stay who you are. Do not give in to the desire to pick a fight with anyone who gives you some slight insult. Temper your newfound rage with knowledge. Only enter a fight to defend those you care for. And should something come to pass, do not give in to the path of revenge either. Seek retribution on those who wronged you, but do not let it consume you._

 _Channel your anger and hurt into a craft, as I do with carpentry. Do what feels right, not what feels good._

 _I will end this letter here, as I have said all I need to say. I will place the envelope holding it in the Den, guarded by two of my bond-plants. They will let no-one enter, even me, until you approach the door after awakening your battle-lust. After that, you may enter. Once you do, they will crawl you, verifying that you have indeed discovered your weapons. If I am gone, they will then turn to dust. My final will is that they remain vigilant until you discover your inner strength. Good luck my boy._

 _With all the love and pride I possess,_

 _Your father,_

 _Gabriel Isely._

Tears streamed down my face in torrents as I read the letter my dad had written for me in case he couldn't tell me this face-to-face. A loud sob escaped me and I fell to my knees. I curled into a ball, my forehead resting on the floor, crying freely. I didn't care who saw me at this point.

When my dad died, I hadn't been as broken up as people thought I would be. He'd been my best friend, but he had also been the one to teach me that all things died, and his final words before he succumbed to the knife-wound that claimed him were "Do not mourn me, I go back to the Earth Mother."

I had heeded his words. I shed exactly one tear over my father's death. My mother, however had cried for days, then entered a deep depression.

But his letter proved to me that he knew, or at least suspected, that he would die before he could teach me everything I needed to know. For some reason, the fact he did nothing to change his fate, the fact that he had basically abandoned me, broke something in me. The dam finally burst, and my tears and pain with it.

"You bastard..." I whispered to the dead room. I crumpled the letter in my hand, and rose slowly, rage building within me. "You fucking son of a bitch!"

"Lucas?" I heard from out in the hall. Jinx sounded scared.

I ignored her completely. I dropped the ball of paper and threw my head back, screaming in primal rage. A loud, wordless howl that seemed to shake the Earth itself. As I roared at nothing, dust fell from the ceiling, indicating I actually _was_ screaming loud enough to shake the house, if not the earth.

I threw my arms out to the sides, willing _something_ to attack me right there. It was actually more of a dare. Instead, large tree branches shot from my entire body, streaking out and cracking into the walls around me.

"EVERYONE OUTSIDE, NOW!" I heard Raven shout from upstairs. A clatter of feet, and hooves, showed that the others were listening.

"WHERE'S LUCAS?!" She suddenly called.

"HE'S STILL INSIDE! HE'S CAUSING THIS!" Jinx answered.

My primal scream of pain finally formed into coherent words.

" **YOU FUCKING SCUM-SUCKING PIECE OF SHIT! YOU LEFT ME HERE ALONE! YOU ABANDONED ME, ONLY LEAVING A LETTER TO EXPLAIN, AND YOU EXPECTED ME TO BE OKAY WITH THAT?! I WANTED MY FATHER! NOT SOME WORTHLESS PIECE OF PAPER!"**

As I screamed, shaking the house violently, I lashed out. I threw my arm around in an arc, swinging the think branches sprouting from it through the wall. I turned to the door and pushed my arms forward. The tree branches expanded, and were joined by roots. They struck and burrowed into the wall, then grew in width, cracking the building. I stormed through the house, lashing out with my unrecognized plant limbs. I wanted the place razed. I wanted to severe all ties to my family.

I. Wanted. Blood.

What I didn't know was that I not only leveled the house from the bottom up, I started trees growing wherever I walked. And they grew quickly.

Soon, the space my house occupied would be replaced by a grove of giant trees.

I continued my rampage, not caring about collateral damage. I leveled the entire house in minutes, seeing green. I couldn't hear anything beyond the chlorophyll rushing through my veins. Nothing mattered to me except the utter destruction of my entire existence. As of that moment, I no longer saw myself as an Isley. I was just Lucas. Even he was slowly dying.

A single voice cut through the haze.

"SOMEONE RESTRAIN HIM!"

Robin had arrived, presumably with the rest of the Titans and honorary Titans.

I turned to face his voice, my eyes cold and empty. Tree limbs were still growing from my arms, flowing upwards and moving like fire of their own will... or maybe mine. It was impossible to tell.

Starfire flew forward and sent a star bolt at me. I raised my hand and willed the limbs to stop me from sustaining injury. I expected them to just take the blast. Instead they somehow caught the star bolt. Starfire's eyes widened before I pulled my arm back, then threw the bolt back at her side-arm.

" **DO NOT INTERFERE, YOU INSIGNIFICANT MEAT SACKS!"** I growled. Argent decided to try something stupid. She ignored me.

She summoned a giant saw and tried cutting the limbs off. The branches wrapped around Argent and began constricting, breaking her concentration and causing the saw to disappear.

" **EVIDENTLY, YOU HUMANS DO NOT LISTEN WELL. NOW, I MUST MAKE AN EXAMPLE OF YOU, ARGENT. YOU BROUGHT THIS ON YOURSELF."**

I raised my arm, elevating Argent where the entire group of young heroes cold see her, and began to clench my hand. Argent screamed in pain as she was squeezed tightly.

Everyone seemed to know exactly how hard I was squeezing her, so I assumed Argent had a high pain tolerance.

"AZARATH MITRION ZINTHOS!" I was suddenly blasted back as dark energy surrounded me.

Let me say that again. Surrounded ME, not inanimate objects that then restricted me. Raven had unleashed her full strength on me.

I felt something enter my mind and begin to sift through my thoughts, trying to discern what caused this meltdown that led to me almost killing Argent.

I screamed and clutched my head, curling over, barely managing to remain standing.

 **Inside Lucas' mind melded with Raven's**

 _I sat on my knees, clutching my head and moaning. Raven appeared in front of me, her arms crossed and her foot tapping._

 _"What happened Lucas?"_

 _"I don't know... all I remember was...ungh... reading a letter from my dad."_

 _"And that caused you to go insane and almost kill somebody?"_

 _I groaned as memories flashed through my mind. Raven flinched as she saw the screens of my memories flash by._

My father teaching me to never turn my powers on a human in anger. To never beget harm on those who are innocent.

Dad defending me from a mugger the night he died. The man had tried holding me hostage to get Dad to turn over everything we had on us. We knew even if we did, he'd still slit my throat. So Dad had rushed forward, trying to get me out of the man's grip. In return, he had thrown the blade out and plunged it in between my father's ribs.

Finally, the letter. The emotions tied to it. The betrayal.

 _Raven cringed and grabbed her head. She stumbled back a step, revealing her legs momentarily._

 _"Oh... that would explain a lot."_

 _I cringed in pain and rose to one knee. "How...ungh...how are you here...Raven?"_

 _"I had to use my powers on you," she said._

 _"So?" I rose to a shaky stand._

 _"That's the reason I only use my powers on lifeless objects. When I manipulate something with my powers, a bit of my soul goes into it. I didn't have time to use something on you, so I had to restrain you directly."_

 _The pain subsided, and I sighed in relief._

 _"Is this permanent?"_

 _Raven actually looked a little nervous. "Well," she said, fidgeting with her hands. "I... don't know. I've never done this. I had to read Robin's mind once, but this is different. I didn't just use empathy, I actually put a piece of my soul into you."_

 _I stayed quiet, digesting this news. "Is all this happening in the same length of time we perceive it? Or is it all happening in the blink of an eye?"_

 _"No clue."_

 _"Great," I huffed. "umm... how bad did I get?"_

 _"You leveled your house."_

 _I grimaced. "That part was intentional, though I don't remember it." Raven looked at me like I grew a second head._

 _"My dad abandoned me. There were any number of ways he could have changed the outcome of that night. My sister is a psychopath, and will probably try to kill me if she gets the chance. The only one I can really say I'll miss at this point is my mom. So, I'm no longer Lucas Isley. I'm just Lucas. I have no family, and for the moment, I have no home. I hope I'll find one with the Titans, but I can't say anything for now. We'll have to see what happens."_

 _Raven studied me quietly. Then, a small smile shone through her emotionless mask, which was framed by her shoulder-length lavender hair._

 _"Yes, we will. Let's try to go back now."_

 **Exit the mind**

I woke up in shackles, my hands completely covered by steel. I looked around to see I was in the same room I'd woken in that morning. My bags were piled by the door, and Speedy leaned against the wall, an arrow knocked, glaring at me.

"Look," I said. "Just because Raven doesn't want to be your girlfriend, doesn't mean you have to get all pissy when she and I have any form of interaction." I was joking just to piss him off. It worked. He drew his bow taut and aimed it at my face.

"I have no qualms about blasting your face into dust, leaf head. The _only_ reason I haven't done it already is because Robin was worried what might happen to Raven if you suddenly died."

"Yep, sure it is, bro. I know you enjoyed watching me sleep. Little creepy on the stalker meter there, Speedy." I was about to laugh, but noticed his eyes widen a little behind his mask, before he scowled and knocked a second arrow, aiming it at my heart. He snarled at me.

I burst out in mirthless laughter. "Oh, you're fucking kidding me! Speedy, archer extraordinaire is _gay?!_ " I laughed harder. "Oh this is just too good! What? You thought people would care about your sexual preference? You do realize I saw Argent making out with Jinx, right? Afraid no-one who knows you would find you attractive?" I continued chuckling as Speedy shook. With fury or fear, I didn't know, but either way tears streamed down his cheeks.

 _Enough, Lucas._ I heard in my head.

 _Raven?_ I asked in confusion.

 _Obviously. Apparently, sending a bit of my soul into you to restrain you created a mental link between us. Wether this is permanent, my answer is the same as if my soul fragment stuck inside you is temporary; I don't know. But,it doesn't seem to send any thought at all, only directed ones, or those of someone, such as you, who doesn't have mental defenses. We'll have to work on that._

 _Great,_ I thought sarcastically. _Just what I needed! Another voice in my head, telling me what to do!_

I sensed Raven's confusion.

 _I'll tell you later. Any progress on figuring out how long I've been under guard? And can I get these manacles off? They're starting to chaff._

 _We've both been out for two days._ Well, shit.

 _And Robin had you restrained because you went crazy. I'll talk to him._

I sat there, staring at the ceiling, for almost an hour before Robin walked in with a scowl on his face.

"Let him go, Speedy. Raven says he's fine. We'll hold a meeting in a few minutes. I'll see you there."

The entire time, Robin hadn't looked at me. He didn't acknowledge me, aside from saying to let me go and why. I knew he was pissed. I snickered as he left the room. Speedy walked over and removed all the shackles. I sat up and rubbed my wrists as he left the room. I stood and stretched, shaking the stiffness from my body. I then tried to leave the room, only to be met by Hotspot and Pantha, who took one look at me, then turned me around forcefully and shoved me back into my new prison.

I sighed and dug out a book from one of my suitcases. It looked like I'd be there a while. I only got a few pages in before the door opened, and Argent walked in, precariously balancing a tray loaded with food on one arm, the other being wrapped in a cast. I flinched.

"Sorry." I had barely muttered it loud enough to be heard, but she nodded.

"Wasn't your fault. Raven told me everything when she woke up. I figured you'd be hungry, so I brought you some food." she set the tray down on the bed, and I immediately began tearing it apart. All the food was gone inside of ten minutes. Meanwhile, Argent just sat there watching me eat, chewing her bottom lip like she was debating something.

"Lucas..." she began once I'd pushed the tray away. "I get that you don't like want a _relationship_ after what you did at your house, but maybe the two of us could... do some stuff sometime? I find you really attractive...plus, you seem like you need some way to vent stress..."

I nearly choked on the water the food had come with. Was Argent seriously asking me to have casual sex with her?

 _Must be the pheromones._ I thought to myself. Then, strangely, I actually _looked_ at Argent. Not as a hero, but as a teenage girl. She looked to be about sixteen, maybe late fifteen, and she wasn't bad looking. She had shapely legs, not bulky, but with just enough muscle to hold herself up doing bar crunches. Her waist was slim, but not skinny. She was just naturally slender. Her stomach, what I could see of it with her gothic dress on anyway, seemed flat and firm. Her arms, much like her legs, were slim and delicate looking, but I had no doubt she could match me in push-ups. Finally, her chest was firm, and what I could see looked soft. Her breasts were mid B-cups. Not too large, but not too small either.

I looked at her in her layered black and red dress, boots up to right below her knees, elbow gloves on her arms, her dress's corset pushing her breasts up a little revealing a good amount of cleavage. Her hair was relatively short, a red streak running down the front, and was held out of her face by hair clips.

I knew she wasn't the one, but she wasn't asking to be. She was asking for sex, no more, no less. It still surprised me after I tried to kill her, but she didn't seem to care.

"Have you ever done anything like that before?" I asked.

She blushed, the red being more noticeable as her skin was pale, and ran her fingers over the 'A' on her chest. She kept her eyes on her feet.

"No..."

I sighed quietly. "Then I guess we'll be on equal ground." she snapped a look at me. "If we do this," I continued. "It's not a commitment. Either of us can end it at any time for any reason." She nodded excitedly. "If someone asks, you can tell them if you want, but I would prefer to not have my personal life out amongst the Heroes of the world. And please, don't get clingy. I don't want people to think we're a couple." Her face fell slightly. I silently cursed.

"I didn't mean it like that. We're just friends, with benefits, but friends. Look, any guy would be lucky to date you. I just... don't feel that way about you. Don't get me wrong, you're sexy as hell," here, she blushed even more violently and twisted the skirt of her dress. "And I appreciate that you realize I don't want an actual relationship. But I would be an idiot if I let this opportunity pass me by. How many guys can say they're friends with one of the hottest heroes in our age group?"

Argent fluttered her eyelashes at me. "Flatterer." I smirked.

"The best." Suddenly, she leaned forward, about to kiss me, panting slightly. I barely managed to speak.

"Don't you have to go to that meeting?" she smiled brightly and shook her head.

"They thought I would be biased about what happened, so they left me out." I nodded thoughtfully, then shrugged.

"You sure you want to do this? And so soon?" in answer, Argent leaned in and kissed my jaw, then trailed a few kisses down my neck until she reached my collarbone. She pushed against me slightly, forcing me onto my back on the bed as she straddled me, her hands running under my shirt and lifting it above my head, momentarily breaking the contact between her lips and my skin. Then, she threw my shirt to the corner and looked at me lustfully, her eyes raking over my bare chest. I felt myself grow stiff, and so did she.

"Well, well," she said in a sultry voice. "Looks like you weren't lying when you said you found me sexy." I was about to protest when she leaned in and bit my collarbone lightly, but with enough force to make it sting a little. Instead of what I was going to say, a quiet moan flew out of my mouth. Argent's eyes lit up. "Oh, Luke like it rough, huh?"

She kissed my collarbone again, then trailed nips down my chest, until she reached my stomach. She looked down, lifting my pants a little, and grinned. As she reached for my zipper, an eager gleam in her eyes, a loud knock sounded. She snapped up, glaring at the door.

"Dude," said Beast Boy from the other side of the door. "Come on, Robin wants to see you."

Argent sighed and climbed off me, looking seriously disappointed. I stood and exited the room, not dwelling on what just happened.

Not only had I just had a person forgive me for trying to kill her, she then turned around and asked me to have casual sex with her.

 _Of course_ I got cock-blocked by a green shapeshifter.


	11. Chapter 11: A Strange Discovery

**A/N: Before I start, I just want to say that I originally planned for this fic to go in a completely different direction. But once I started it, it just took over and pummeled my idea to death and went off in the direction it wanted. Second, and I know some of you are confused about this, given the letter. No, Lucas is not taking advantage of Argent, as his pheromones do not work like his dad said they would. Again, explanations will come in the story. So, what will happen to Lucas with the Titans? Will he be forgiven for his anger? Or will he be banished? Where the hell is his sister? Continue on to find out!**

 **Chapter 11: A Strange Discovery**

Beast Boy led me to the training gym, which had several rows of chairs, all of which were filled with young heroes. Muttering began immediately.

"Beast Boy, I thought I asked you to get Lucas?" Robin sounded really confused. I cocked an eyebrow.

"I'm right here." Robin looked at me like he finally saw me. "Oh... that was weird." he shook his head. He and the original Titans were sitting on a raised dais, so they could be easily seen by everyone. Robin gestured to a lone chair that was between the dais and the mass of heroes. "Sit."

I shrugged and flopped into the steel chair, throwing one arm behind it and one leg out casually.

"So," I said. "What's up? This little shindig to decide what's for dinner?" Robin scowled at my joking attitude.

"You seem different, Lucas. Why are you so...nonchalant?" I shrugged.

"Guess my little episode changed me enough to turn me into a complete ass."

 _It also seemed to have made it harder to focus on you. Robin keeps blinking like he has to focus just to see you._ Raven said in my head. I looked at the five Titans sitting before me, Beast Boy having joined them once I sat down. Of the five, only Raven seemed to be able to look at me clearly with no issues. I turned to look at the gathered heroes behind me. Same issue. No-one seemed to able to look at me for more than a few seconds before they had to clear their heads and re-focus. I smirked a little.

 _Well, Gabe, looks like you were wrong. People don't notice me. Nothing new, but now, I don't really care._

"That 'little episode' is exactly why we're here. We need to decide what to do with you," Robin said in a tired voice.

I chuckled. "Isn't it obvious? Get me mad, then turn me towards the bad guy and watch him get bloody."

"Lucas, you almost killed Argent. We can't just let you walk around like nothing happened."

"Then don't," I said calmly, all trace of joking leaving my voice. Robin jerked back like he wasn't expecting that. "The way I see it, you have three options; Send me out, never to return, and label me a super villain. Lock me up for life, with just enough food to survive, to be you're personal oxygen-maker in case of nuclear fallout. Or starve me for a week, keep me on as a Titan under probation until I prove I can be trusted, and have someone keep an eye on me to make sure I don't have a full psychotic break." As I talked, I ticked the options off on my fingers. A few people muttered as I outlined the choices.

"I'm pretty sure we could think of other things to do, dude." Beast Boy said, looking a little queasy at the second option.

"Then, by all means, I would LOVE to hear them."

He opened his mouth, then closed it, looking thoughtful.

"Why would we starve you for a week?" Cyborg asked.

"Simple," I answered. "If I don't eat for a week, I'll be too weak to do any real harm if I suddenly go bonkers. Of course, given my metabolism and the fact I photosynthesize, there's always the chance I won't survive the week, but hey, why should you guys care? Not only am I almost a total stranger, I almost killed one of you, and on top of that, I have blood ties to one of the most dangerous Super Villains out there. Second only to the Joker because he doesn't give a shit about anything. Ivy at least has a goal other than just watching the world burn."

"You make her sound like a misunderstood child," Raven said quietly. I shrugged and sat up a little.

"While I don't exactly approve of her methods, my sister has an ultimately noble goal. She wants to preserve the natural world. Understandable, considering our powers, and ultimately our life force, derives from that world. Who would _want_ to die?"

Starfire frowned a little. "I have heard that argument for another of this planet's history... something about a 'World War'?"

"Oh, you mean Adolf Hitler?" she nodded. "Yeah, same principle. The guy wanted to cleanse his ancestral home. Again, his methods were deplorable, but his ultimate goal was admirable." a few angry shouts rang out as I said this. Apparently World War II and the Nazis were a sore subject for a few people.

The Titans turned away and deliberated amongst themselves for a few moments. When they turned around, four of them had a grim set to their faces. Raven just looked apathetic, as she always did.

"Lucas, be sure to thank Raven later. She's convinced us to let you stay with the Titans, under probation. We won't starve you, but you will have someone watching you until we're certain we can totally trust you," Robin said with a small frown. I did a mock salute. "You'll be staying in the room you've already occupied." I grunted as Robin dismissed the assembly. Raven stood and used her powers to move everything off the mats.

Once everyone filed out, She, Robin, and Speedy stood before me.

"What's up?"

"We're starting your training," Robin said. "I'll help you in hand-to-hand combat, Speedy will help with your weapons," his eyes glazed over for a moment before he shook his head. "And Raven will help you refine your powers, and figure out what's happening to you."

 _I noticed none of the girls looked at you like they wanted to molest you,_ Raven thought to me.

 _Yeah... that was definitely one think I could have gone without. I guess my pheromones changed from attracting those of the fairer sex, and homosexual males, to me, to...what? Making me practically invisible?_ I responded, my hand going to my chin in contemplation.

 _No,_ Raven sounded intrigued. _Not invisible... just harder to notice. Almost like you're meant to be a scout... or a spy?_ She'd seen the letter, and so knew about the whole "roles to fill" thing.

 _Makes sense, if I was a scout or spy, and had every girl within a certain distance throwing themselves at me, regardless if they were in a relationship of some kind or not, I wouldn't be a very good one. So, my pheromones change to make me harder to notice, instead of being the center of attention. I bet with some training, I could make it so people can't see me at all unless I want them to._

 _We'll work on it,_ Raven promised. I looked up to see Robin and Speedy looking at us, amused looks on their faces.

"You two done?" Robin asked.

"Huh?"

"You guys looked like you were holding some kind of wordless conversation. Evidently you two understand each other better then we ever will."

I _f only they knew..._ I mused.

"So who am I training with first?" Speedy whipped out an arrow and shot it at me. I barely managed to bring out my axe to deflect it in time. I scowled and pulled out my sword as well.

"Weapon training it is, then."

Speedy did a quick back-flip, firing three arrows at me in rapid succession, and I quickly noticed they weren't the blunted kind he usually used. Either he was seriously trying to kill me, or this was incentive to get real good, real fast. I suspected a little bit of both.

When the first arrow reached me, I lifted my axe blade and deflected it up, where it stuck into the ceiling. The second passed through the gap between my blade and the handle, so I had to quickly twist my wrist. The arrow caught and the momentum changed, flying off just slightly to the right, almost grazing my ribs. The third arrow buried itself in my gut.

"AAAAGH!" I screamed in pain as I grabbed the shaft and pulled it out. Chlorophyll coated the arrow head once I got it out, thick and warm. Speedy smirked at me and nocked another two. I looked up from the hole in my abdominal, pushing me sword-holding hand against it to try to stem the flow of my blood. I heard a bunch of sudden thumps and everyone busted back into the hall, Argent included, to see me standing there bleeding with one of Speedy's arrows at my feet.

"Oh, look. An audience to the humiliation I'm about to put you through. This is payback by the way." I gave him a look that said _are you fucking nuts?_

"You, sir, are an ass," I grunted out as I grew a root from my hand to fill the hole until I could get it looked at.  
Speedy shrugged and pulled back his bow to fire at me again. I rushed forward, sword leading. He brought his bow up to block my slash, but as soon as my blade made contact, I twisted, turning out. My sword caught the grip of his bow and turned it wide as he released his arrows harmlessly to the left. I continued my turn to bring my axe around. He whipped his bow back in time to stop my attack, a grimace on his face.

"So... you're beating Robin wasn't a fluke after all."

I laughed. "Sad thing is, I'm not supposed to be this good after my first match, according to my father." Another thing he was wrong about, it seems.

 _Your stance is a little sloppier this time. You're still good, but at the moment you're using only brute force. You need to work on your strategy and finesse._ I nodded quickly to Raven's suggestions. I knew I wasn't on the level I was in that first fight, but Speedy didn't need to.

"Your attack patterns and defenses are predictable, you know," Speedy huffed out after what felt like ten minutes of trading blows. Evidently he hadn't wasted it. "You move from one to the next in a simple pattern; slash with the sword, ram with the axe handle, sword stab, axe slash, attempted pommel slam to the face or chest from the sword. Repeat. You need to break out of that, become unpredictable. Don't just stick to a few moves." he now sounded as though he was genuinely interested in helping me, instead of humiliating me for poking fun at him for being gay.

"Thanks," I grunted. While I wasn't winded like he was, I was focused on keeping him on the defensive to avoid letting him fire more arrows at me. That first one hurt like a bitch. Suddenly, an idea ran through my head and I smiled sadistically. I slashed at him, which he deflected with an annoyed look on his face, but when my blade reached my side, I snapped it up and shot it forward into a stab. He looked surprised as he brought his bow down to stop my momentum. The hilt caught on his bow, stopping me cold.

I smirked and yanked my arm up, lifting his weapon out of the way, and snapped around quickly. Instead of using my axe or sword, though, I brought my leg up into a back-heel kick to his side. He staggered to the side, clutching his ribs. Then he looked at me in anger and jumped back, firing ten arrows in quick order, two at a time. Five of them I blocked or tuned away, one from each pair. When he stood still, a triumphant smile plastered on his face, I looked down to see five arrow shafts sprouting from my chest and stomach. Then the pain registered.

"AAAAAARRRRRRGH!" I fell backwards, dropping my weapons and howling in absolute pain. A few cheers rang out from the onlookers.

"Don't worry," Speedy said haughtily. "I didn't hit anything vital." he continued talking, but the pain I felt, and something else, made his words turn into a low drone I couldn't really hear.

 _Ah fuck..._ I thought groggily, my consciousness fading quickly. _Either I'm... passing out... from blood-loss, or... that asshole... coated his arrows... in sleeping poison. Possibly both._

I felt several pairs of hands lift me, and a small prick in my arm.

"Put a rag in his mouth."

 _Huh?_ I managed to think before someone did what the voice said. I felt small but strong hands rest on my shoulders, holding me down against something hard and cold. More hands held down my arms and legs. _Are they about to..._

The thought cut off as an arrow was suddenly yanked from my stomach, the slightly barbed head taking a chunk of skin with it. I howled through the rag and bit down involuntarily, my body clenching every muscle it possessed.

"Speedy, did you have to use the barbed ones? They make it a lot harder to remove them without causing more damage." I heard the voice again. It sounded really irritated.

"Sorry, Raven. I kinda got lost in the fight," a sheepish voice said. For some reason, an image of Speedy rubbing his arm and shuffling his feet appeared in my mind, and I giggled deliriously.

"Oh, great. Now he's going loopy from blood loss." that one sounded like Argent.

"Someone give him a sedative, if we have to wait for his muscles to relax after every pull, we'll be burying him."

"Uhhh, Rae, we already gave him one."

"What?"

"We stuck him with some morphine on the way here from the gym. For some reason, it didn't work."

"Speedy, did you use your sleeping poison?"

"On every arrow. The first one especially. I wanted to see if he could fight through it. He wasn't even affected."

A loud curse rang out. "He's immune to drugs and toxins! I should have known after Ivy was the same!" The voices around me continued to grumble, getting fuzzier with each passing moment.

"Umm hello! We have a guy bleeding out with multiple arrows still sticking out of him! We can discuss this later!"

A hand I barely felt rested on my shoulder. "Lucas, this is going to hurt."

I felt the arrows shift slightly, then the remaining four were quickly ripped out at once, all taking small chunks of meat and flesh with them. My back arched and I screamed, biting down so hard I felt my teeth meet through the cloth. I blacked out.

- _XXXXXXXXXXXXX-_

I was enveloped in total darkness, floating aimlessly. I saw a few memories of my life flash by. Not my whole life, just a few.

 _Am I dead?_ Strangely, I felt no pain, so that was a very real possibility.

"No, Lucas, you aren't dead." I turned to locate the voice and saw what could only be described as a pixie woman. She stood, or floated, at about five feet, and she had bright orange hair that flowed down to her waist. A long green dress made of leaves rested on her shoulders, and went down to her ankles. Her skin was green, and she had plant-like swirls all over it. She actually looked lot like my sister, just shorter.

"Do you know ho I am?" she asked.

"Ummm, a midget version of my sister?" I responded. She laughed heartily, throwing her head back and grabbing her stomach like I'd told the greatest joke in history. Her laugh was light, and flowing, sounding a lot like a summer breeze rushing through a forest clearing up in the mountains.

Once she calmed down, she wiped her eye, removing a small tear that had formed. "No," she said, still chuckling. "Although I know why you would say that. All women of the Will look similar. I just happen to be the first."

"You mean you're my ancestor?" I asked in confusion, my brow crinkling. She nodded.

"Yes, I am. I was the first ever born with power over plants, and every child I had inherited that gift. I don't know how it happened, or why. All I know is that my mother treated me like a god or something." I shuddered as she told me this. "My name is Gaia." My eyes widened considerably as she said this casually. I sputtered out a stream of incoherent sounds, then fell to my knees, bowing low.

When I looked up, she was frowning. "Oh, get up." I rose.

"Gaia, as in _the_ Gaia? As in, the Goddess of the Earth, the ancient power that bestowed the Will onto my family, Gaia?" she sighed exasperatedly.

"Oh, great," she muttered, rubbing her temple. "Now people think I'm an eternal freaking Goddess. Just wonderful."

"If you aren't a Goddess, how are you here?" I said, trying to make her see my point of view. Instead, she looked at me like I was crazy.

"You're my descendant, you moron. A bit of my soul was passed to each of my kids when they were born, and so on and blah blah blah. Same thing will happen to you when you have kids. You have a small bit of everyone you're descendant from inside you, making up bits of your soul, but only those of the Will can actually access them and talk to them."

"You know, you talk an awful lot like a modern teenager, for someone who was apparently born and died thousands and thousands of years ago."

Gaia shrugged. "Side effect. Your knowledge gets passed to each of us, so we can relate to you." as she said this, a large group of people suddenly appeared. Men and Women from a bunch of different eras. The men were as varied as could be expected. Some had red hair, dull or bright, some had blonde, brunette, a few even had outrageous hair colors, like blue, or green.

"Are those their _natural_ hair colors?" I asked incredulously. There was no way those were natural. But Gaia nodded.

"You don't know how weird it was when my first son had Lime-green hair. But, he did. Turns out his bond-plant was a Lime Tree too." she snorted in laughter as the guy with green hair huffed and crossed his arms. He muttered something like 'not like I asked for it, mom.' Poor guy. I was about to ask something else, when I heard a voice that caused me to stiffen in rage.

"Hey, kiddo." I turned mechanically to face the ghostly image of my father.

"Uh-oh..." Gaia and a few others muttered. "He really should have just stayed quiet." a few people nodded in agreement, then everybody took a large step back.

I ran at my father. He looked happy and held his arms out like he was expecting a hug. Fat fucking chance. I slammed my fist into his jaw, sending him flying.

"Get the fuck out of my head, you prick!"

He stood, rubbing his jaw. "What the hell, Lucas?!"

I growled and cracked my knuckles ominously. "You abandoned me, you son of a bitch! You left me with only a fucking note, when you could have done like twelve different things to that jackass and changed how that whole situation turned out!" When I called him a son of a bitch, an elderly man stepped forward. Late fifties, early sixties maybe.

"Hey, there son, you watch what you say about my wife! She was anything but a bitch!" I recognized him from the pictures around the house. Grandpa Jim.

"Shut up and get stuffed, Grandpa. I'll deal with _your_ dumb ass in a second for not teaching _him_ ," I pointed at my dad with disdain. "To not do everything he can to stay alive to help his family." Grandpa just shuffled his feet and stepped back into the crowd of my plant-controlling ancestors. I turned to my dad, a maniacal grin on my face.

"Now then, where was I? oh... yeah.." I rushed my dad again and slammed my fist into his nose, then quickly brought my foot up and sparta-kicked him in the gut, doubling him over. I brought my other knee up and into his nose, hearing a _very_ satisfying crunch.

"That," I growled. "Was for letting that guy stab you." I lunged at him, grabbing his neck and throwing him down, face-first into what was apparently the ground here. I stepped onto his back and jumped, bringing my leg down into a falling axe-kick across his spine as he rose slowly. He groaned when he hit the ground again.

"That was for leaving me a fucking note!" my voice was rising. "And this is for not seeing that Pam was a fucking psychotic lunatic and having her locked up!" at this point I was screaming. At my dead father. Inside my mind. One would think I was crazy.

I grabbed him by the shoulders, lifted him up and threw him skyward for all I was worth. He flew a good twenty feet into the 'air' before he started falling again. I whipped around, cracking my heel against his cheek, hearing a loud snap ring through the emptiness of my still-black mind. I was too distracted to really notice the lack of form around me anyway.

"Because of you and your idiotic fucking habit of seeing only the best in people, not even _considering_ the possibility that they might be, oh I don't know, a MURDEROUS LUNATIC, Pam killed mom and I am an orphan. Because. of. You!" each of the last three words were punctuated with a good, solid kick to his ribs.

"Kid, I think you've made your point." I snapped a glare to a tall blonde guy in Roman armor with a plant _Gladeus_ on his hip. He took a step back. Another guy, who looked old as shit, wearing a Roman Senate toga laughed and patted his shoulder. I couldn't see his weapon.

"Oh, come one, Balthazar! I haven't seen a beat-down this good since you and your brother Lucino fought over who would marry Caesar's bastard daughter!" a few chuckles rang out from the group, and Balthazar grumbled angrily.

"I would have won if he hadn't discovered his battle-lust during that fight..."

"Seriously, dad? You lost a fight to uncle Lucino over Aunt Marriane?" a teenage boy, who looked a lot like me, asked, resting his wrist on his vine _Spatha_. Then everything about the group clicked.

"Holy shit! You're Balthazar Macciro! You were Julius Caesar's most trusted General after Brutus!Are you telling me I'm related to you?!" Balthazar puffed his chest out in pride.

"That's right, boy! You are my..." he paused and seemed to count something in his head. "Fifty-six times Great Grandson! Or something like that." His son snorted back a laugh.

"Yeah, dad. That's great. You managed to fail saving Julius from his traitorous bastard son, all because you were trying to win over mom." Balthazar deflated, looking miffed.

"I was off near Greece, protecting our borders, you brat!"

"Whatever." His son said nonchalantly, picking at his finger nail while looking bored. I snickered, then turned back to my father. I looked at him with disgust before turning away again.

"One lesson you never learned son... only turn your back when you know they pose no threat!" he roared, apparently charging me with his big-ass greatsword. I snapped around, weapons suddenly in hand, I don't know where they'd been, and threw his blade to the side with my sword. Then I snapped the blade of my axe to his neck, the threat obvious.

"You don't pose a threat," I snarled. He blanched, realizing that I could have killed him if this were a fight in the real world, and he wasn't already dead. I heard Balthazar and his son let out low whistles. I lowered my axe, then brought my foot up into a high kick, slamming it into my father's sternum and sending him flying. I sheathed my weapons and turned around to see the entire very large group of my ancestors looking at me in awe, and a little fear. Gaia stood stunned for a moment, then laughed uproariously.

Everyone looked at her like she'd lost her mind. "Oh, holy shit!" she managed. "He's just like me!" she doubled over laughing. Her son blanched, while the other women looked at her in confusion, along with the rest of... well... everyone. Including me.

"No, he isn't," one woman said. She was really tall, and ripped to boot. I guessed she was an Amazon. "He's a male. The women of our kind are smarter, though we lack our own plant weapons." she shot me a jealous glare, obviously miffed that she couldn't fight using her powers. A lot of the guys just nodded in agreement, obviously not noticing the insult thrown at them.

"Hey!" I said indignantly. "I'm probably just as smart as you! If not more so!" she looked like she was surprised I had caught the slight. Then the other men realized what she said. The angry shouts began. Gaia just laughed even harder, rolling on the ground clutching her stomach.

"Mom, just show them already!" her son said in exasperation. Gaia rose, still giggling madly, and reached into the folds of her dress, removing two plant weapons. My jaw dropped, and all the women screamed in outrage that she had weapons at all. The guys looked surprised too. I quickly registered that her weapons were mine. A sword in the right hand, an axe in the left. I looked at mine, hen at hers. They were identical.

She finally stopped giggling, mostly, and explained. "I was born with these powers first, so I had the pure, undiluted form. I was both Shaman and Warrior. I was the forward scout of my village military, so people had a hard time noticing me unless I wanted them to. When I had kids, only my sons got the weapons, and battle-lust. My daughters got the more... theoretical use. Looks like Lucas here was the first scout born since me. While all of you," she indicated everyone. "Still put out the chemicals to make people want to serve you in whatever way, and a few of you took advantage of that," a few people, the Amazon included, ducked their heads and looked guilty. "This kid will only have people attracted to him if they are truly attracted to him." she put on a devilish grin. "Like that Argent girl."

I turned pepper green and sputtered a little. A few people threw cat-calls and wolf-whistles at me, making me turn even greener. I finally managed to squeak something out.

"How do you know about that?" everyone laughed.

Balthazar's son walked over to me and put an arm around my shoulders. "We're bits of ancient souls, stuck inside your head. We see, hear, smell, feel, and taste whatever you do, kid. And you thought you were a schizo!" he laughed out. I turned greener yet, and tried to hide behind something. Anything. There was nothing to hide behind.

Gaia walked up to me, her eyes shining with laughter. "Oh, don't get us wrong, we approve of the situation. It was her idea after all, and you even told her the truth. Plus, everyone needs to vent stress, and combat won't do everything for you. I was just pointing her out as an example. Your reaction was too perfect though." she looked at the guy still hanging on my shoulders, using me as support to remain standing through his laughter.

"Okay, Lucan, I think you can calm down now," she said, suppressing her mirth.

I turned to him. "Your name is Lucan? Da fuck?" he grimaced at his father, who looked a little scared.

"Dad decided to name me after the Wolf Goddess of Rome, but didn't know what to do when I turned out a boy. Eventually he changed the 'p' to a 'c' and slapped an 'n' on the end. So, boom. New name is born into the world, which is eventually replaced by your own."

I nodded. "Okay, wait. You said you're all in my head?" Lucan nodded. "So those voices I hear are all of you? All..." I did a quick head count. "Two thousand thirty-six of you?"

"Not all at once," Lucan said. "We take turns, otherwise you wouldn't be able to function. Only like, ten of us at a time. It's like... rotating players on the ice." I nodded, instantly understanding. Hockey was the one sport I enjoyed. "We leave one or two constants in, to stabilize everything, and rotate out the rest."

"Who are the two constants?" I asked. Lucan and Gaia smiled and raised their hands in the same manner I do; index and middle fingers high, thumb up, ring finger and pinky curled slightly.

"Okay, if you guys could maybe stop, and just have like three people talk to me only when I need it, and not all the time, that'd be awesome." I said. Everyone looked crestfallen.

"But whhhhyyyyyyy?!" whined one teenage girl dressed like she was from the Renaissance.

"Because now that I know it's you guys, and I'm not schizophrenic, I'd really rather not hear voices all the time. Makes it a little hard to think. Advice, yes, general conversation, no."

Most people grumbled, but accepted. Gaia nodded and smirked, then mumbled something to Lucan.

"And another thing," I said, pointing at them all. "Why the different ages?"

"These are the appearances and ages we dies at, bro."

I looked at Lucan, then pointed at a girl who appeared thirteen. "she was a mother at thirteen? What the hell!" Gaia, seeing I'd caught on to who all appeared in my head, quickly explained. "She's from, like, the Dark Ages. Soon as they had their periods, they were married to some guy and had to have his kids. A few of us got lucky, in that our parents weren't total douches. I was allowed to choose I married, for example." the girls and women from the Renaissance and Dark Ages all crossed their arms and mumbled "lucky bitch."

"And let me guess, people traveled, got married to someone on the otherr side of the known world, yadda yadda yadda, blah blah blah, and that explains all the different cultures I see." Lucan nodded.

"Well, this was an informative visit," a monotone voice said. All of us turned out heads mechanically to see Raven standing there, her cloak down, covering everything.

"Ummmmmmmmm... how long have you been there?" I asked, sweating.

"Since you counted how many ancestors you have," she answered. We all breathed a collective sigh of relief. For some reason, none of us wanted Raven to know about my situation with Argent. Lucan recovered quickly, then strutted over to Raven and cocked his eyebrow suggestively.

"Hey there, I'm.." he started. His dad and Gaia groaned.

"I don't care," Raven cut him off. "You're a thousand years dead, and you look too much like Lucas for me to be comfortable with you flirting with me. Plus, you're stuck inside his head, and I really don't feel like coming in here any more than necessary."

Balthazar _snerked_ in laughter.

Gaia imitated the sound of a bomb falling, then blowing up, which caused everyone else to laugh.

"What's up Raven?" I asked after a quick chuckle at Lucan's expense.

"You've been out for a few hours, and you were twitching violently. Argent and Robin were a little worried, so they asked me to check on you." I could sense a small lie behind her answer. Evidently, they weren't the only ones worried.

Gaia looked like she was about to say something along those lines, but I put a hand over her mouth, getting an angry glare. "Thanks, I'll be out soon." Raven nodded and faded.

Lucan huddled off to the side, a rain cloud over his head, muttering something about being shot down so quickly.

Gaia turned to me. "Ok, last few things about you and your powers. You start off better than normal in blade play, otherwise you'd be a _dead_ scout. You'll also be a stamina freak in a lot of things," here she, Lucan, Balthazar, and some Middle-aged woman dressed like a World War II Italian put on very lewd smirks. I blushed slightly at her meaning before she continued. "And, as I said, you'll be harder to notice. You'll also be able to go days without food, just like if you were scouting enemy territory, and you'll basically be an insomniac. You might sleep a total of... like ten hours a week. Instinctual thing I never understood." I groaned.

"Hey, you'll have a lot of free time!" Lucan said with a lecherous grin.

"Which I will mostly use for training and reading," I stated firmly.

"Oh come on, man! You have that serious babe willing to be your personal sex slave!" I looked at him, then at his dad.

"Has he always been a shameless pervert?" I asked. Balthazar nodded, looking ashamed to have sired this boy.

"How the hell else to you think he became a dad at your age?" Gaia asked. "He had three kids," she pointed to a woman in Roman finery, obviously the one who continued on to lead to me. "Then got killed by a trip down the stairs to get some wine. Broke his neck."

I looked at an angry Lucan, then shrugged. "Whatever. How do I wake up?"

Gaia stepped forward and slapped me.

-XXXXXXXXXXX-

I woke up to see Argent sitting by my bedside. I felt a fiery pain in my abdomen, and looked down to see my entire torso wrapped in bandages.

"Ow," I groaned as I tried to sit up. Argent jumped and helped me.

"Hey! Welcome back!" she said as she fluffed my pillow and raised the back of the hospital bed I was in.

"Where are we?"

"Titan Tower infirmary," she answered. "We had to rush you here after Speedy put those extra arrows into you."

"You mean aside from the one he stuck me with first?" she nodded and sat back down. I sighed heavily. "When I see him, I'm going to crack his bow over his head and beat him with the pieces."

Argent smirked. "Already done. Beast Boy and Raven beat you to it."

"Goody." I was in too much pain to really attempt sarcasm.

The curtain was suddenly pulled back, revealing a bruised Speedy, an irate Beast Boy, a stoic Raven, and a concerned Robin.

"You're awake!" Beast Boy cried when he saw my bed leaning up.

"I told you he would be," said Raven.

"I think it's safe to say I'll be stuck in this bed for a while?" Robin nodded, and I groaned. I was already jittery and wanting to move around.

"So, learn anything new? Raven told us about what she saw." Argent said.

I shot Raven a look, one eyebrow raised in question. She just shrugged.

"Can I get some water?" Argent shot off, returning a moment later and handing me a glass of water. I took a sip and began my tale.

"Turns out my 'Goddess' isn't actually a goddess."


	12. Chapter 12: Down the Road to Recovery

**A/N: Hey again, everybody! Now, before we dive back into the chaos of Lucas' new life, I want your opinions on something. I have recently (yesterday) begun toying with the idea of a pokemon story from Gold's point of view, with the whole setting being in Heartgold/ Soulsilver. If I do it, I plan to make it a Gold x Harem thing, but that's where I have a problem. I only want like four girls, maybe five, and I'm having trouble deciding the final girl! I'm stuck between Misty of Cerulean, and Janine of Fuchsia. I have really good plans for both of them. The other girls are Jasmine, Claire, Sabrina, and maybe Ethan's female counterpart (I don't remember her name right now). So shoot me a PM on if I should go with Misty or Janine, or if I should even do the Story at all! I want your feedback! I write for you guys, so let me know! Also, I have decided to change the story from final pairing of Lucas x Raven, to Raven x Lucas x Argent. It bugged me a little, so now Lucas has a two girl Harem. There will not be more, and they will not have to fight for his affections, and will in fact get along fine. Anyway, on to Lucas!**

 **Secondary A/N: This Chapter contains Lemons! Not the full extent it will eventually, but lemons nonetheless. You have been Warned!**

 **Chapter 12: Down the Road to Recovery**

"So, now I can talk to my ancestors."

As I finished my story, omitting the parts where they heckled me about Argent, Beast Boy's jaw dropped and Robin let out a low whistle.

"You weren't joking when you said you weren't an Isley anymore, were you?" Raven asked, her brow crinkled in minor concern. My face fell into a vicious scowl.

"I think that option went out the window Rae," Beast Boy said nervously. "Now let's try not to piss him off. He might be stuck in bed, but his reach an extend."

"Speaking of which," Robin said suddenly. "I've been meaning to ask you, what was that plant you used before? It was different than the vine you used before you went back to your house." I shrugged and grew a tree branch out of my shoulder.

"Don't know. I haven't identified it yet." Raven stood up quickly and left, leaving us all confused. She returned a moment later, holding a planting pot filled with soil. She held it out to me.

I lifted my right arm, the one that wouldn't have to cross my body, slowly, groaning the whole way. Argent and Raven shot Speedy murderous looks, and he began shaking like a chihuahua shitting razor blades. I only got my hand half-way up before it fell back to the bed with a _whump_. I was panting, tears barely squeezing out the corners of my eyes. Lifting my arm from a sitting position put a lot of strain on my abs it seemed.

I flopped my head back, on the verge of tears. I _hated_ being weak. I always had. Always stuttering, always unable to defend myself from bullies, always afraid to approach girls I liked. I'd despised myself since I was old enough to recognize what weakness was. Now, here I was, too weak to lift my arm.

"Damn you, Speedy," I muttered lowly. I heard a fearful gulp.

Raven, having literally read my mind, tried to calm me down. "Lucas, this is only temporary. You'll be fine in no time."

"I shouldn't be here in the first place!" I exploded, jerking upright. I felt something break, but I didn't care. "I should be in the fucking gym, training! But you," I stubbed a finger accusingly at Speedy, "Had to fucking hospitalize me just because I gave you hell for being scared to admit your gay! I don't even fucking care! I was trying to get you to stop being a goddamned pussy and just tell everyone!" minor shock registered on everyone's face, and Speedy's looked like he was three seconds away from turning into a very embarrassed puddle of goo.

"But did you stop to fucking think I wasn't making fun of you?! Hell no! You automatically assumed I was a jack-ass and was giving you a hard time for being gay! News flash dipshit! I put up with bullies my whole goddamned life! Why the fuck would I suddenly be one?!" as I wound down from my mini rant, Speedy looked immensely guilty. He opened his mouth to say something, but I cut him off by leaning back and snapping his head off some more.

"Save your breath, prick. I don't want to see you right now. Get the fuck out." he stood and walked from the room, tears in his eyes.

"Dude... that was a little harsh," Beast Boy told me. I laughed humorlessly.

"You act like I give a damn at this point. If he wants to take every single word to heart, he has no business hanging around me." Argent sent me a questioning look. "I break people down to build them back up stronger. It's like gardening; if you just pull the weeds and leave the flowers alone, they won't grow very much. But if you prune the dead limbs, the plant stops sending water and nutrients to them, instead channeling them to the ones that need it. That way, your flowers grow bigger and more beautiful." a look of understanding dawned on her face, and Robin's. I almost said something else, but then I cringed as my hand shot to my gut. I looked down.

The gauze was slowly turning green, indicating I had reopened at least one wound. Argent sighed heavily and rose to get more gauze and a needle and thread.

"Hey, Rae," Beast Boy said. "Can't you try your whole healing hocus pocus on him?" I sent both of them a questioning look.

"Healing hocus pocus?" Raven sent him a look like _I will kill you later._

"I already did. It didn't work for some reason, so we had to stick to traditional methods." Beast Boy nodded and scurried from the room, fear plastered on his face. Robin sighed and followed him, for some reason I don't know.

"Argent," Raven monotoned, "You haven't left Lucas' side since he got in here, you need to eat something."

"Nah," Argent replied, "I'm good. Besides, Lucas needs someone to be here in case hhe needs help." I could see the hidden meaning in her eyes; _plus I want some alone time with him._ Raven just turned and left the infirmary. Afterr a quick second, Argent bolted to the door and locked it, then closed the blinds so no-one could look in. She turned to me with a devilish grin and held up the gauze and needle in one hand. "Time to re-close that wound, handsome." For some reason, I felt really nervous.

"Argent," I began as she stalked forward with a predatory look, "I really don't think this is the best time for that." She put on a small pout. "Not only can I barely move, your arm is still broken. Maybe we should wait?" she shook her head violently.

"We got interrupted earlier, and I feel like I'm owed this." she giggled as she jumped on the bed, straddling me for the second time that day. She jolted me and I groaned in pain.

"Earlier I could contribute," I panted out. She pouted again, then shrugged and removed the gauze around my torso. To do so, she had to sit me up. Considering she never got off the bed and was still straddling my waist, when she helped me sit up, my face was in her cleavage. She didn't seem to mind at all. In fact, I think I felt her lean into it.

Once she got the bandages off, she clucked at my chest, disappointment written clearly on her face, and threaded the needle with some difficulty. Then she leaned me back again and began sewing up the three arrow holes that had re-opened. I squirmed the entire time. I hated needles, it didn't matter what kind they were, if they were used in medicine and they entered my flesh, I disliked them.

"Hold still."

I stopped squirming for a moment. When I felt her cut the thread after closing the final wound again, I shuddered. "Get that thing away from me!" she hopped off my bed and put it on the counter. She turned back to me with an innocent smile. _Too_ innocent. I narrowed my eyes at her.

"What are you planning?" in answer, she strutted over to me like a super model, throwing her hips to the side just enough to be sexy.

"I'm not planning anything. But we have to apply these gauze." she held up the bandages. I sat up, with her help, and she began wrapping me. Starting over my shoulder, under my armpit, then across my chest, winding down with each layer. It wasn't until she got to my stomach that I realized what she had in mind. The lowest hole was right below my hips, just above what could technically be considered my groin.

"Argent," I began as she got closer. "I can take it from here." I made a grab for the gauze, but she suddenly summoned a pair of glowing handcuffs that bound my arms behind my back. She climbed back on top of me, using her position to grind against my hips. I stiffened beneath the sheet, and she smiled. She continued wrapping me up, carefully moving around my handcuffed wrists, until she covered the final wound. When she stopped, the pinned the end of the wrap to the level above it, securing it in place. Then she turned her attention to the sheet, which was poking up at one point right below her.

"Hmm," she mused. "I can't just leave that dangerous object sticking out of you! It might hurt you!" I sighed heavily and leaned back as far as I comfortably could with my arms behind my back.

"Yeah," I scoffed. "And you are in such a _good_ position to not get hurt yourself." my sarcasm was back in full force. Argent smirked and sat down fully, pushing her firm butt against me through the sheet. I got even harder, which she seemed to notice. Her eyes widened a little.

"Are you even fully hard?" I smirked a little and shook my head.

"Having second thoughts?" I asked, trying to hide my laughter. Evidently not, as a hungry look appeared in her eyes.

"How much more?" I was already standing tall at seven inches, but she wanted to know exactly how long I was.

"Another three," I said, a hint of nervousness in my voice. Her jaw dropped, and she stopped her grinding. She lifted her butt, scooted down the bed, and yanked the sheet down. I was still in my boxers, but they didn't do much to hide my member. To be totally sure, she pulled those down too. Her eyes widened to the size of salad plates as she looked at me, her mouth falling open to the bed.

"Oh. My. God." she reached forward and wrapped her uninjured arm around me. Her fingertips barely met. "You're a monster! What the fuck?!" I turned green as she took a grip on me.

"Ummm..."

"Don't say anything! Let me just take in the fact that this will be inside me! I mean, holy shit!" she suddenly had a look on her face, a mixture of curiosity and desire. "I wonder what you taste like?" she whispered seductively. That did it. I grew that last bit, standing full before her, and she smiled lustfully, showing a little bit of teeth. Then, she started stroking.

Her hand rose and fell, going all the way from the base to the tip, then falling back. I felt myself pulse in time with her ministrations.

"You like that?" she asked huskily, her voice barely above a whisper. I nodded a little, and she smiled again. She leaned forward and kissed the shaft, then ran her tongue up the length from the base. I leaned my head back and moaned quietly. Her tongue was warm and soft. She shifted forward a little, then slid me into her mouth slowly, teasingly. I looked down at her.

"I thought you said you haven't done this before." she smiled as she took me out of her mouth.

"I haven't."

My mouth dropped open as she turned her attention back to my throbbing member. She returned me to her mouth and began sliding up and down slowly. Every time she fell down my length, she took more into her mouth, slowly gaining ground with every pump. When she reached halfway, I expected her to stop. Instead, she kept going, taking me in hungrily. I felt myself hit the back of her throat, but she kept going, running her tongue seductively around me. Her jaw looked like it was about to snap when she finally reached the base.

Then, she closed her lips around me and began sucking lightly. She pumped herself all the way up, then all the way down, falling into a soft, slow rhythm. I moaned again. She looked up at me from below her eyebrows, and I saw pure lust in her eyes. At this point, I was panting lightly. I felt the handcuffs she had created disappear, so I pulled my arms from around my back and leaned on my elbows. She knew I didn't want her to stop, and she obviously didn't want to stop.

After a few moments, she added the final, delectable layer to an already incredible blowjob. She began dragging her teeth lightly along me. I had to bite back a loud moan as I felt my flesh being raked slightly by her. I felt myself begin throbbing violently, and she smiled when she did too. She pulled back, now only taking me halfway, before pulling out to the tip and back, still sucking lightly and using her teeth. I felt the throbbing get harder, and knew what was about to happen. I put one hand on the back of her head, gripping her hair, as I came, shooting into her mouth. I felt her tongue wrap around me, creating a channel for my semen to flow down. She drank it greedily, making sure to get every bit.

After a second, it stopped, but still dripped a little, and she removed her mouth, instead deciding to lick my shaft as she got every little drop.

I flopped back, ignoring the pain in my stomach. "For an amateur, that was fucking amazing!" I breathed out heavily. Argent giggled and pulled my boxers back into place, followed by the sheet.

"Thanks," she said, "I just hope you'll return the favor when you can." I nodded.

"Count on it. Though, I don't think I'll be quite so... talented as you seem to be. Are you sure you haven't done anything like this before?" she giggled again and did the 'cross my heart and hope to die' movements.

"One hundred percent! Virgin, through and through! Well, no a perfect virgin anymore," she added as she grinned at me. Then she crawled up to me, snuggling into my arms and pressing her breasts against my bandaged chest, and whispered in my ear, "But we'll be sure to change that soon, won't we?" I blushed and looked resolutely at the ceiling, then nodded slowly.

"It's a good thing I don't have a gag reflex, huh? Otherwise that would have turned awkward real fast." I blushed even harder.

Argent got out of the bed and sauntered over to the intercom after unlocking the door.

"Hey, Flashy, can we get some chow in here? Lucas hasn't eaten since this morning."

Two seconds later, Kid Flash blurred into the room, carrying a large tray of food. He set it down in my lap, before stealing a hoagie and dashing out. I began tearing into the food.

 _Please tell me there will be more of that!_ I heard Lucan shout in my head.

 _Shush!_ Gaia said to him. I scowled.

 _I thought I asked you guys to not be talking to me all the time._

 _Oh, come on kid! I had to say something! That girl is a fucking nympho! You have got to be planning on more than just casual sex with her!_

I thought about it for a minute. _At the moment, no, I'm not. We'll see where it goes and if it develops, but for now, we're sticking with casual sex._

Lucan began crying loudly.

 _Lucas? Is everything okay? I haven't heard your thoughts since I left the infirmary. And who's crying?_ I heard Raven in my head.

 _That would be Lucan. I don't know why, but he just started crying._ I lied smoothly.

 _It's because I can't see her beautiful face! Raven, you must come to me!_

Raven, Gaia, and I all shouted at him at the same time.

 _Shut the hell up!_

 _And, I transferred all my mental scout training to Lucas when he came in here to meet us all._ Gaia explained. _He now has mind strong enough to withstand anyone's mental probing._

 _Okay then. I was just curious._ Raven cut off with that.

 _Holy sweet earth, thanks Gaia. You probably just saved my ass._

A quiet snicker was all I got.

I returned to the food as Argent sat at the foot of the bed, watching me eat.

"Want some?" she shook her head slightly and smirked lewdly.

"I'm full."

I nearly choked on a bratwurst. The coughing hurt like hell, but I couldn't stop. When I finally stopped hacking, I groaned and leaned back, clutching my stomach and grimacing in pain.

 _This girl is almost a bigger pervert than Lucan!_ I thought to myself.

Argent looked at me worriedly as I panted in pain from the arrow holes in my chest and stomach.

"Sorry," she said. "Maybe while you're eating isn't a good time."

I pushed the tray away with a sigh, having utterly obliterated the contents. "It's fine," I groaned as I tried to find a comfortable position. "I should have seen it coming anyway." Argent moved to fluff my pillow for me, acting surprisingly girlfriend-like.

"Argent, why do you like me?" the question seemed to catch her off guard.

"What do you mean?"

"Why do you like me? Like, at all. I'm an asshole, I'm not really that physically appealing, and I almost killed you. Yet you want to fuck-buddies, even going so far as to tell me outright that while you wanted a relationship, you didn't push it because I wasn't looking for one. Why?"

She looked thoughtful for a moment. "First, the term 'fuck-buddies' is so crude. I prefer 'casual partners'," I waved my hand like it didn't really matter. "Second, you actually are really attractive, and not just in looks. Sure, you can be an asshole, but so can anyone else. I just met you a few days ago, but you already have given me so much more of your time than anyone else ever has. Even if it was to tell me to calm down when I practically threw myself at you after that first fight with Robin. You just seem like a guy I would want to settle down with. I know it will probably never happen, but the appeal is there. Plus, you're smart, funny, know exactly what you want in life." I scoffed at the last one. "Finally, you're really strong, and even still, you work to improve yourself. I saw that in your fight with Speedy. You took his advice to heart and tried to improve yourself in the middle of a fight. Not many people can do that."

I sat quietly, digesting what Argent had told me. The way she painted me, I was so... perfect. According to her, I had my whole life together after just a few days. She didn't even breach the subject of my breakdown at my house.

"Argent, I really don't think I'm as... together as you say I am. I don't even know what I want to do with my life. The Titans just sort of... took me in a few days ago after my sister killed my mom." Argent's hand flew to cover her mouth in shock. "Hell, before my fight with Robin, I was exactly what Aqualad said I was: a stuttering introvert. I couldn't hold a decent conversation to save my life, let alone convince a girl to consider even dating me, nevermind having sex with me. Even now, I still have a tendency to shy away from people. I know it doesn't seem like it, but I have zero confidence in myself. The reason I'm not looking for a relationship is because I feel like I won't measure up to someone like, say, Aqualad or Beast Boy. They're both so much cooler than I am. More confident too. You'd probably be better off dating them than having sex with me. At least they know what their roles in the world are."

"That's their problem." I felt my eyebrow lift in confusion. "They know what their roles in life are, so they're cocky and arrogant. They think that just because they're heroes, that they have the right to just do what they want, no consequences. Hell, while you and Raven were out of it after the incident at your house, Beast Boy tried to get me to go on a date with him after I clearly said no. All Aqualad wants is to screw me just to say he did it first. You, however, told me, honestly, that you wouldn't say anything because you weren't comfortable with it. And at first, you weren't even going to accept the offer at all." I raised my eyebrow at her again, wondering how she knew I was going to decline before changing my mind. "I saw it in your eyes. You looked at me like you did anyone else; as a person you wanted to be friends with. You probably only accepted to spite your dad or something."

I stiffened instinctively and clenched my fists, my nostrils flaring.

"Raven told me everything, Lucas. The letter, how your father died, all of it pertaining to why you nearly killed me. She felt I deserved an explanation. Believe me, when I realized what the pheromones thing meant, I almost died. But when you woke up, you were different. You didn't seem so magnetic. So I figured I could approach you."

"You're wrong," I almost growled, still angry at the mention of my father. "I don't care enough to try to spite that man. I accepted your offer because you're sexy as hell and you seemed genuine. But, you're right in that I was originally going to say no, just like I did before my pheromones changed. But for different reasons. I wanted to get to know you, just like I want to get to know everyone else."

Argent nodded and scooted up the bed a little, looking rather shy.

"Now that we both know the others' feelings and all, would you...maybe... reconsider dating me? Instead of just having sex?" I sat up as best I could with a groan and a sigh.

 _Oh, come on Lucas. She just poured her little heart out to you after giving you head! You have to at least give her a chance as your girlfriend!_ I heard Gaia shout. I put my pinky in my ear and shook, like I heard an annoying buzz in my ear canal.

"What if I suck as a boyfriend though? I have no experience, and like I said, I'm sure there are better guys out there." Argent just smiled.

"That mentality is exactly why you'll do fine. You don't think too highly of yourself. To a degree, that's a good thing. It means you won't act like anyone owes you anything. You, of all people, will treat me right."

I contemplated everything. Finally I shrugged to myself and turned to Argent, who was slowly scootching closer to me.

"Alright... I'm willing to give it a shot. No guarantees that we'll stay together though. It might not work, or one of us will..." I was cut off as Argent leaned over and kissed me gently, being careful to avoid my injuries.

"All I ask is that you do try," she whispered into my ear after removing her lips from mine. I nodded slightly. "And don't think that just because we're a couple now, that you'll get off Scot-free, mister," she added, that hungry gleam back in her eye. "I expect you to perform up to snuff in _everything._ " to accentuate her point, she glided her hand over my crotch through the sheets. "I've had a sample. Soon, I'll want the whole course." I turned pepper green again and nodded. She smiled sweetly and lay down, cuddling against me, nuzzling her cheek against my bandaged chest.

 _What have I gotten myself into?_ I questioned no-one in particular. I looked at my new relationship from an objective view, or tried to anyway. Argent had straight-up told me that she liked me. I told her the same. We were now dating, after she performed oral sex on me, and I felt uncomfortable about it. Something told me that there would be a major head-ache involving Argent somewhere down the road.

At the moment, I was only attracted to Argent on a physical basis. I doubted that could be the foundation of a healthy relationship, but didn't want to say anything to upset her. I turned to face her to begin a conversation, but found her eyes shut. I listened for a moment, and had to smile when I heard an adorable little snore escape her. I looked out the window, then at the clock. It was almost midnight.

I thought about what Raven had said. " _You've been out for a few hours" "Argent, you've been by Lucas' side since we got him to the Infirmary, you should get some sleep."_ I considered when she had likely woken up, and felt immensely guilty. She was taking care of me like a girlfriend even before she _was_ my girlfriend. I couldn't wake her up now, just to get my arm back, which she was currently using as a pillow.

Robin suddenly walked in, a tray with water and a book on it in his hands, and saw my current situation. He paused, shock on his face, very poorly masked, then smirked evilly.

"Well, well, Lucas," he said quietly as he set the tray down withing my reach. "Barely an official Titan a day, and you already have girls flinging themselves at you."

"Oh shut up, Robin. Just because it took you forever to reach puberty and get with Starfire, doesn't mean you have to give me hell because Argent wants to date me." He scowled at me slightly.

"How do you know it took me awhile to get with Star?"

"Dude, you guys have been my heroes since you kicked those fish alien asses all those years ago. I've sort of been keeping tabs on what happens with you guys."

"You're not a stalker, are you?" he asked jokingly.

"Nah. Mainly I just pay close attention whenever I happen to see you guys around the city. You and Star only showed up at places together alone about a year ago, after you got back from Tokyo."

"How'd you know we were in Tokyo?" now, he sounded worried.

"Because I saw you guys there." his brow knit itself in confusion. "Mom took there for vacation, seeing as I always had an interest in foreign cultures. We were only there for a couple days, but I saw the big festival the city held for you." Robin lifted his hand to his chin, thinking back. I decided to help him. "I walked up to you all and cracked Beast Boy over the head with a rubber bat, which caused his new fangirls to try to kill me." understanding dawned on his face as he remembered the event.

"By the way, why _did_ you hit Beast Boy?"

I shrugged. "Mom dared me to. She always knew I admired you guys, but that I wasn't brave enough to approach you. So she dared me to hit one of you with a rubber bat she bought for protection. Beast Boy just happened to be the closest one that looked like he wouldn't kill me."

"So, you weren't brave enough to talk to us, but you were brave enough to hit one of us on a dare from your mother?"

"It's a family thing. We refuse a dare given to us by a family member, we find our own way home, or find our own food if we are home. So it was either hit Beast Boy, or swim back to California."

"I seriously doubt your mother would just leave you in Tokyo over something like that," he said skeptically.

"Why not? She and her _husband_ ," I spat out, "left me in Metropolis once when I refused to push Ivy into the river. I had to walk forty blocks to my Aunt Christine's house and beg her to get me a plane ticket home on the same flight as my parents." Robin's eyes widened, and I nodded. "Oh yeah, we take our bets seriously bro."

"Your parents were horrible!"

"No, they actually did okay as parents. They just took the whole 'family bet rules' thing a little too seriously. Plus, if I did refuse a bet, they usually gave me something to defend myself with, just in case. And they left a tracker on me in case I got kidnapped or something. I only refused a bet once, and Pam didn't leave my side when I walked to my aunt's place, so I was good."

"Pam?" Robin asked.

I bit back a curse, realizing my slip-up. True, she was a super villain who'd just killed my mom, but she was still my sister. Those bonds were harder to break than one would think. Logically, I knew I should tell them her real identity to help them try to stop her, but every time it came up, I just changed the subject. It was bad enough they knew my last name, but then again, there were enough Isley's out there that they couldn't narrow it down.

Finally, I sighed heavily, but quietly to avoid waking the still sleeping Argent, and relented to logic.

"Poison Ivy. Her real name is Pamela Isley. She changed it when she had a psychotic break. Poison Ivy is her bond-plant, but she also wanted her initials to remain the same for some reason."

Robin turned quickly, like he was about to bolt from the room and call Batman.

"Robin," I called weakly. He stopped and turned to face me. "Please, keep this to yourself. By all rights, I should hate her, but she's my sister. I can't blame her for going insane. If you ever had a sibling you would do anything for, please, keep this quiet."

Pain and loss appeared on his face. "I'll stay quiet as long as I can. But if someone asks, I have to tell them."

"I understand..."

He turned and fled the room, tears beginning to form in the corners of his eyes behind his mask.

I leaned back with a heavy sigh, small tears of my own forming. So much to think about, so much time to recover. I glanced at Argent, still snoring softly, and smiled a little. I lifted my free hand and moved a stray strand of hair from her face, pushing it behind her ear.

Recovery was sometimes a long road.


	13. Chapter 13: Out in the Open

**A/N: So... I noticed someone keeps reloading the latest page, waiting for an update... *smirk* I was waiting to see if anyone would give me their opinion on my pokemon fic, but since you're all so impatient and obviously don't really care, here it is! A Dark Path to Tread Chapter 13!**

 **Chapter 13: Out in the Open**

Argent woke about seven in the morning, stretching her arms and yawning adorably. Then she looked at me oddly for a moment, like she didn't recognize me.

"How'd you sleep?" she asked, a mild yawn in her voice.

"I didn't."

Her eyes widened and she sat up quickly, allowing feeling back into my arm. "What do you mean?"

"I didn't sleep at all. I wasn't tired."

She leveled a glare at me, by which I was unaffected. So, she jumped off the bed and went out the door, presumably to go brush her teeth. As soon as she was gone, I grit my teeth and sat up.

 _Lucas..._ Gaia's voice had an edge of anger and warning. _Don't you dare. You need to recover._

I ignored her and stood, panting slightly. I noticed I felt shaky, but I just stood still for a moment, then began moving. I took each step slowly, gingerly, but I refused to be stuck in a bed. I made my way to the chair nearby that held my jeans, then pulled them on, groaning as I bent to stuff my legs into them.

Once I got them zipped and buttoned, I exited the infirmary. I had to walk with a hand on the wall, but I kept moving, even when several teens gaped at me and tried to yell at me to turn around and go back. The commotion brought more people running, each of them in turn trying to force me to turn around. Pretty soon, everyone except Argent, Robin, and Raven were crowded around me as I walked down the hall. Then two of them appeared.

"Lucas?! Are you insane?! Get back to the infirmary!"

"No," I finally ground out. Robin jerked back in surprise. "I refuse to be confined to a bed when I can be doing something to help."

"Lucas," Raven decided to cut in, "need I remind you that you are under probation as a Titan? If you can't listen to us when there is no trouble, how can we trust you in the middle of a fight?" I gritted my teeth.

"If you can't trust me to help when I'm injured, how can you trust me to pull my weight when I'm totally fine? I won't let something like a few holes in my gut slow me down. And I won't let you baby me."

"It's not about babying you!" I heard Argent shout. _Ah crap._ "It's about letting you heal properly! Now turn around, get back to the infirmary, and stay there!" the crowd parted, hastily I might add, to reveal an irate-looking Argent with her hands on her hips and a scowl on her face. Obviously, she thought she could scold me back to the bed. I just stood as tall as I could and crossed my arms.

"I'll be fine, _mother._ I've seen all of you fight with worse! I am not going to be moved on this!"

Argent lowered a deadly glare at me, making everyone begin sweating, but I just glared right back. I had seen a worse glare when Mom was mad, so this was nothing.

"And besides, if someone attacked the tower, do you really think they'll leave me alone because I can't fight back?"

Argent continued glowering at me, accompanied by Raven. Finally, Kid Flash decided to evacuate before it got violent.

"Isn't it about time for the rest of us, who don't live here I mean, to leave? We've been here longer than we planned already, and we have our own cities to take care of." Murmurs of agreement rang out, and everyone who didn't currently reside in Titans Tower, and Argent, beat a hasty retreat out of the building, heading back to wherever they came from. Soon it was just me standing alone against Raven and Argent, all three of us refusing to back down, with the other four Titans standing awkwardly on either side, trying not to draw attention to themselves.

Suddenly, the alarm rang out, snapping the Five residential Titans out of their various trances, and they all began moving.

"Titans! Trouble!" I moved to follow them, but Argent conjured a red chain and held me in place.

"Not happening, mister. You are staying here with me and helping clean, since you seem hell bent on staying out of bed."

I opened my mouth to protest, but was cut off by Cyborg, "She's right man, at the moment, you would only slow us down and get in the way."

"And the place is pretty messy," put in Beast Boy, "we sort of never really stopped partying."

And with that, the Titans dashed, going to take care of whoever decided to be an ass today. Argent dragged me to the living room, which was trashed. The sofa was shredded, all the furniture was flipped, and there was trash everywhere. It would take a whole team of professional cleaners like two hours to get it all. Or maybe just a guy who can grow plants from his body.

I sent out branches and had them scoop up all the trash. Once it was all held up, I smashed it all together, compacting it into small balls, then threw them away in the bag Argent had gotten out. She looked at me like _why didn't I think of that?_

"How..."

"Cleaning a disaster area is nothing new to me. I just have stronger plants now. Now help me with the furniture." she nodded and helped me right everything. Then we looked at the couch. "Not much we can do about that..." but as I spoke, the floor opened up and swallowed the destroyed couch. A few moments later, a panel rose, replacing it with a couch that looked exactly the same, but not destroyed. My eyebrows rose and I whistled.

"Looks like we don't have to do anything," Argent said with surprise. I just nodded. "Now what? We have no more mess to clean and plenty of time to kill..." in answer, I flopped (sorta) down on the new sofa and grabbed the TV remote, flipping it on.

"Isn't it obvious? We watch movies." Argent let out a small laugh and went to the kitchenette to make popcorn. "Hey, could you make me some tea while you're over there?" I heard an affirming 'hmmm' and started flipping through the movies they had on demand. They literally had everything; Horrors, Romantic Comedies, Actions, you name it. Argent set down a bowl of popcorn and a mug of green tea on the table, then actually flopped down on the couch, jolting me. I groaned and clenched, which caused me to groan more.

"Sorry, but you should have stayed in the infirmary." I just growled.

"What do you ant to watch?"

Argent took the remote and began flipping through herself as I took the mug from the table carefully and took a sip, feeling the hot tea glide down my throat. I looked to the screen and had to hold back a scream of terror. Argent had put on 'Twilight'.

I snatched the remote and quickly changed back to the menu.

"Oh HELL NO! We are NOT watching that shit!"

She began laughing uproariously. I just _harrumphed_ and put on a movie I gleefully noticed. 'Return of the Gaelic Sea Monster' was DVR'd by someone in the Titans. As soon as the movie began, Argent threw me a sideways look.

"You turned off 'Twilight' to put on some shitty, forty-year-old movie?"

"Hey, this is a classic! So what if the graphics suck? Like you said it was made a long ass time ago. Just give it a chance!" Argent shrugged and leaned into me, resting her head on my shoulder and tucking her feet under her.

Twenty minutes in, the Titans returned to see Argent and me cuddling on the couch, watching my favorite movie of all time. Beast Boy groaned loudly.

"Of all the movies he could like, it HAD to be that one!"

"Shush, it's getting to the best part!" I called back without looking. I felt the couch drop and peeked out of the corner of my eye to see _Raven_ , of all people, giddily settling in to watch the remainder of the movie. She expertly reached out and took the popcorn from my lap, then leaned back and began eating it, all without taking her eyes from the screen.

After a small snort of laughter, Beast Boy turned and walked out, and the others joined us on the couch, albeit calmly.

"I've never really.." Robin began, but was cut off by Raven and me reaching over and slapping a hand across his mouth each, hers over mine, as the monster rose from the depths of the Irish sea to tower over some military guys. We stayed there until he forcibly removed our hands, but I think he got the message.

Starfire started to speak as well, but I threw a pillow at her without looking, immediately shutting her up.

This trend continued for the rest of the movie, with the others trying to talk, but Raven or I immediately shut them up, sometimes together, sometimes separately. When the credits _finally_ began rolling, I turned from the screen for the first time since the movie began.

"NOW you can talk."

"You're and even bigger asshole about that movie than Raven is," Robin scowled at me. I shrugged and finished what was left of my tea.

"At least he respects a classic. Not many people nowadays can say the same," Raven monotoned. While she was back to her usual stoic, emotionless self, I could almost feel her respect for me growing. It made me feel...good for some unfathomable reason.

"Raven, I never thought you would like 'Return of the Gaelic Sea Monster', or that your reaction would be so... expressive."

"And none of us thought you would be dating Argent. The world is full of surprises."

"Huh?" then I looked down to see Argent watching our conversation like a tennis match, still leaning against my side and cuddling me. "Oh... yeah." I pulled the arm draped around her shoulder closer and gave her a small hug. I heard a small sob behind us, so turned to see Beast Boy sitting on the ground, his legs splayed in front of him, with anime tears running down his face.

"WHYYYYYYYYYY?!" Argent just rolled her eyes and rested her head on my shoulder, but the rest of us laughed, or in Raven's case smirked, at Beast Boy's sadness. The fact it was directed at my new girlfriend made me bristle, but I didn't show it. Argent, though, felt me stiffen slightly.

"Don't worry," she whispered to me, pretending to be kissing my cheek, "he's a womanizer, but he doesn't move in on girls who are in relationships. That I know of anyway." I nodded slightly and hugged her more, turning back to the screen as Robin and Cyborg began discussing what to watch next. Robin wanted to put on a Romantic Comedy, so he and Starfire could cuddle and get sappy, but Cyborg wanted to watch an Action movie, because he felt everyone needed to unwind from the battle.

"How about a Horror movie? Robin gets his hug time, and Cyborg gets his action!" Beast Boy put in, suddenly recovered from his depression, then he siddled up to Raven, waggling his eyebrows.

"How 'bout it Rae? Wanna hide behind me?" Raven suddenly grew five feet, her eyes turned blood red, and she grew another pair, and shadow tentacles grew from under her cloak.

"You would do better to cower with Lucas!" her voice sounded REALLY demonic, all deep and powerful. Beast Boy screamed shrilly and zipped over to the couch, hiding behind me and trying to use me as a shield. I looked at him, then at everyone else, who had followed his example and cowered behind me, Argent included, and then looked at Raven, who had returned to normal.

"Nice trick," I said calmly.

"That didn't scare you?" Robin asked from behind me. Raven cocked an eyebrow at me.

"No, not really. I mean, it was startling, but that's just a part of Raven. I can't change that, so why bother? It will be around forever, so I might as well get used to it."

"That is a very...logical outlook to something you just discovered, especially something so frightening to most people," Raven said skeptically.

I shrugged. "Emotion is good in certain situations, but in others it shouldn't factor. How my friends, or jailers I guess, is one of those where it shouldn't."

Everyone blinked at me in surprise, then Beast Boy muttered under his breath.

"Plus," I added, "I've seen way scarier." Beast Boy scoffed in denial. "I've been to a metal concert," I said slowly, a sadistic smile growing on my face. Everyone's eyes widened and Beast Boy, Robin, and Argent backed away from me. Cyborg just stayed where he was, but began shaking, and Starfire looked confused. Obviously she didn't know what Metal was. Raven just looked and me, a smirk on her face.

"There is no way you like Metal, dude. You're too shy and quiet," as Beast Boy said this, my smile widened and my eyes flashed giddily. Then I broke out singing "In Gold We Trust" perfectly. His jaw dropped.

My growling voice, screaming words, and the fact that Cyborg decided to play the instrumental version as I sang, all proved I knew the song by heart. As I neared the end, Argent began looking like she enjoyed the music, as did Starfire, who had immediately begun dancing after the initial shock, and Raven. Cyborg seemed to respect my decision even if he didn't share it, and Robin appeared as though he was still on the fence. Beast Boy was still in shock.

"Of Gold/ Of Lust/ IN GOLD WE TRUST!" I belted out the final words, then cringed and grabbed my stomach. "Ugh, much as I love it, Metal is not good for a wounded gut, it seems."

"Oh my god... the introvert likes metal...what is happening?" Beast Boy mumbled out. I just smirked and adjusted myself to get comfortable.

"Never judge a book by it's cover Beastie, you'll almost always be surprised." His face turned into a grimace.

"Don't call me that. I have a name."

"What is it?" Beast Boy immediately snapped his mouth shut and blushed.

"Beast..."

"His name is Garfield," Raven chuckled, cutting him off.

"Pffff," I tried to stop myself from laughing, I really did. Unfortunately, Cyborg's snicker set me off, and I began laughing so hard I doubled over. The harder I laughed, the more my stomach hurt, bu ti couldn't stop. I laughed so hard tears formed in my eyes and I was gasping for breath, both from the laughter itself and from the pain. Everyone soon looked at me like I was insane, but I still couldn't stop.

I laughed for a good ten minutes, and when I finally started to wind down, I was in so much pain I could barely move. Argent began fussing over me while I continued chuckling deliriously as the Titans discussed what happened.

"What could cause that?" Garfield asked.

"Definitely not your name, it's not that funny," Cyborg said.

"Maybe he is just tired?" Starfire tried.

"No, he doesn't need much sleep. He can't be tired," Raven denied.

"Maybe the shock of everything is finally catching up to him," Robin cut in. Everyone made small noises of contemplation. "He lost his mom and was totally fine a few hours later, and he almost had a total psychotic break, it's possible that the stress and moving here is catching up and making him loopy. The same thing happened to me when I first moved in with Batman."

"Well on the upside," Beast Boy said jokingly, "none of us want to just hit him anymore."

"That's true..." Robin said thoughtfully, rubbing the back of his neck, "Instead we want to forget he's there at all." as if to emphasize his point, he shook his head and refocused on me. I began giggling again, and Argent sighed in exasperation.

"Come on, Lucas, let's get you back to your room and see about a small massage to calm you down," she muttered as she helped me stand. I slowly stopped giggling.

"That sounds really good actually..." I said thoughtfully, "I've never had one before." Argent looked at me suspiciously. "I'm not good with people, remember?" she nodded and led me out of the room, and I heard Beast Boy crying again. Argent walked with me down the hall to my new room, and when we got there, she had me sit down and she crawled onto the bed behind me. The sunlight steamed in through the window, showing it was just after noon, and warmed the skin that was unwrapped by gauze.

"This will only be a one-handed massage, considering the other is in a cast, but still, I hope it helps you relax a little," Argent whispered in my ear, concern evident in her voice. I grunted as she began rubbing her fingers gently into the muscles of my back. She did the best she could with her broken arm, and her fingers still worked, but I could tell she was struggling with it. I was about to say something, when she hit _just_ the right spot and worked it, her fingers kneading out the tension, and I moaned a little, then fell into a putty. She giggled and kept rubbing.

Once she got my entire back, through the bandages, she kissed my shoulder and rested her cheek on my back, hugging me slightly from behind.

"It would be better, but you know..."

"That felt great, Ar. I want to try to return the favor."

She just 'hmm'd' and I felt her cheek leave my back. I turned to see her unzipping her dress, and sputtered, turning green. I did that way too much lately.

"What? You expect me to get a full back massage while wearing my dress? As if," she said as she laid down on her stomach, using her arms as a pillow for her chin. I noticed she was wearing a black and red pair of lacy panties, and her boots were still on. I rose, locked the door, then moved back to the bed and stood over her.

"You seem awfully comfortable with stripping down to almost nothing in front of me, Argent."

She shrugged without sitting up. "You're going to see everything eventually anyway, and I don't wear a bra. Plus, I don't want to wrinkle my dress. So shut up and start rubbing." I almost snickered, but instead began running my fingers lightly over her bare back, finding all the tension points. Then I began applying a little pressure, pushing with my thumbs in a circular motion, my fingers gliding around her spine and muscles, doing minor work while my thumbs did the hard work on the knots of stress. Argent moaned loudly almost instantly.

"Oh my god... are you sure you've never done this before?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Then you are a natural! Holy shit, this feels amazing! How are you doing that with your fingers?! Oh god... this is better than a massage chair!" I felt Argent relaxing, the tension leaving her, and she seemed to turn into a puddle of goo.

"My mom had me do band in school, and I trained myself to play the bass guitar, just to keep busy."

She moaned again as I moved from her shoulders to the middle of her back, working more knots out of her muscles. "What did you play in a school band?"

"Baritone," I answered. She looked back at me in confusion. "It's like a smaller Tuba." she nodded and returned her face to the head of the bed, turning her head to the side so her cheek rested on her arms.

"Please don't let this end..." she moaned blissfully as I worked my way down to her lower back, my fingers dancing down her sides and my thumbs kneading the sides of her spine. Once I felt the final amount of tenseness leave her back, to fulfill her wish for it to continue, I began on her thighs and calves. Her back arched in pleasure. "I think I just discovered the best guy in the world... please, lord, let him be as good with his mouth as he is with his hands!" she blurted as I began rubbing her right foot. She rolled over onto her back, her breasts jiggling slightly, and leaned up, resting on her elbows and looking down at me. I focused on her legs, trying not to look at her chest. She chuckled.

"And he's not sex-obsessed to boot! Have I truly found the last gentleman in the world?!" I just lowered my head more and moved to her left foot. She moaned yet again. "You're not afraid to spoil a girl, are you? I only wanted a back massage, but you turned it into a full body. Now if only you could cook, and had no reservations, you would be perfect!"

"I can cook..."

"Hmmm? What was that?"

I raised my gaze, looking past her breasts and into her eyes. "I said, I can cook. I cooked dinner at home a lot." her eyes lit up. An idea sprung up in my head, and I stopped rubbing her foot. She was totally finished, but she looked disappointed anyway. "We're going on a date tonight. I think it makes sense, since we're a couple now..."

"Where to, and what are we doing?"

"That's for me to know and for you to find out," I said smugly as I rose and left the room after unlocking the door. I heard a whine behind me, but I just closed the door behind me and said through it, "Get dressed, please. I need to go make plans." I bolted down the hall as quickly as I could before she could reach out and drag me back in. I made it to the kitchen, washed my hands and searched through the fridge. I saw everything I needed for a nice meal. I turned to the Titans, who had not left, and seemed surprised to see me.

"I need your help, guys."


	14. Chapter 14: Things Turn Sour

**A/N: Hey hey everybody! Sorry it's taken so long, but I just moved to Sin City, so it's hectic. Please forgive me! Ok this chapter will begin the fic down the darker path it was meant to travel from the start. Without further ado!**

 **Chapter 14: Things Turn Sour**

"Can I take it off now?" Argent asked as she tried to paw at the blindfold. I smacked her hand lightly.

"No," I said. "Not yet. There's a few more steps, then the door."

"Are we going to the roof?"

"Yes," I said slowly. "Now shut up and walk." she huffed a little and I walked her up and onto the roof. I stopped her and lifted the blindfold. "You can open your eyes now." she opened her eyes and gasped when she saw the setting.

I will admit the date was a little clichéd, but clichés are so effective. A round dinner table with a white table cloth, a candelabra with three lit candles, silver platter covers, fine china and silverware.

"This is...Lucas, how did you do all this?"

"I already had everything at my house. I just had to cook the food."

On cue, Beast Boy walked out in a tux with his hair styled, carrying a tray with food covered by more silver domes. Argent choked back a laugh at the sight and I guided her to her seat, pulling it out for her. Then she looked at me and saw how I was dressed. For the first time since my fight with Robin several days ago, I was wearing a shirt and shoes. I had been going shirtless and shoeless, because it just felt more comfortable to me. Tonight I was wearing a dinner jacket and slacks with dress shoes, and my hair was slicked back.

My bandages were under the button up shirt beneath my jacket. Argent's jaw dropped and her eyes bugged out.

"You look... uhhhh..." I could hear her brain stopping and breaking.

"Like a pompous ass? I've always hated these clothes." She shook her head violently.

"No, I just... haven't ever seen you with all your clothes on... ohmygod...you look scrumptious..." she drooled as I guided her into her seat and took my place on the other side of the table. I chuckled and pulled my chair close to the table.

"So what are the house specials tonight, waiter?" I said jokingly to Beast Boy. I knew what it was. Hell I'd cooked it.

"Tonight we have a full three course meal available, starting with garlic and beef soup for the appetizer, followed by Roasted Chicken with a side of sautéed pasta and seared vegetables, and finally a slice of our chef's signature quadruple chocolate cake with a caramel drizzle and lemon meringue icing."

"And to drink?" I asked.

"Your choice of red or white wine, champagne, or water." I could tell he wasn't saying all this easily. I had coached him for almost three hours on exactly what to say as I cooked, and even then we had to resort to him using an ear piece and mimicking whoever was on the other end. Probably Raven.

I looked and Argent, who raised an eyebrow at me.

"I believe we will have the red wine for thee evening, please."

"Very good. The servers will be right out with your food and wine, sir." Beast Boy said in his most formal voice, then turned and marched back inside. As the door closed behind him, I heard a loud shout of, "HOW DID I GET SUCKERED INTO DOING THAT?!" Argent giggled and I chuckled.

"I never would have guessed you were so romantic, Lucas. You seem more the milkshakes and fries type."

I shook my head and _tsk_ ed a few times. "I will have you know I pride myself on my sense of romanticism. Why sweep someone off their feet, when you can make them rethink the whole world? Why be original when being clichéd works so much better? Revisiting the tactics that work have kept me from looking like an imbecile on many occasions." I explained as Robin walked out with two wine glasses and a bottle of red wine on ice.

"And the wine?" she asked as Robin poured her glass.

"I called a friend of my mom's and asked for a favor." I said stonily. I was still sore about the whole subject. Argent caught it and cleared her throat, then sipped the wine a little.

"Okay... but how did you arrange all of... this?" she asked after a few moments, gesturing at the Titans all dressed to the nines, Beast Boy, Cyborg, and Robin each in a tux with their hair styled all gentlemanly. Starfire chose that moment to drag a grimacing Raven out the door. Just as Robin and Beast Boy placed the food in front of us, and Cyborg turned on some classical music on a small radio, Argent and I turned to look at the girls, and my jaw dropped. Starfire was wearing the same dress she had worn to my school dance, which went sour when Kitten's ex showed up (again they never knew I was there as I was in a corner. They always seemed to show up where I was when interesting things happened,) and began fighting Robin.

Raven, though is who caught my eye. Even more so than Argent, which I didn't understand. She was wearing a deep purple silk strapless ball gown with sequins around the hem, which came to right above her ankles, showing off her matching dancing slippers. No frills, lace, or fluff. My brain shut down as she fidgeted uncomfortably.

I vaguely heard voices, but couldn't really make out what they were saying. I only snapped out of it when Robin subtly kicked me in my shin. I shook my head and focused on Argent again.

"I'm sorry, what were you saying?"

"I was asking if you'd rather have this date with Raven," she answered grumpily with a flash of rage in her eyes. A cold sweat broke out on my neck.

 _Let's see him maneuver out of this one. I'll get the popcorn._ I heard Gaia snicker in my head. Lucan laughed.

"No, no. I'm perfectly happy having this date with you. I was just caught off guard by Raven being in a dress, so my brain shut down a little. I apologize." I said calmly, even though I felt my stomach drop out my ass and my heart nearly stop entirely. Argent made a small suspicious noise, but when I kept my focus on her, not even looking at Robin, which would have been acceptable considering he was asking if everyone should leave, she seemed to accept my answer and looked at her soup. The tension left quickly, and I heard claps inside my head. At least, I'm fairly certain it was in my head. I ducked my head and began in on my soup.

While I should have enjoyed it, my brain was too busy. After checking that I wasn't projecting to Raven, I began thinking.

 _Why did that happen?it's not like I've never seen a girl in a dress like that before...maybe it was just because Raven has only ever really been seen in her cape and leotard?_

 _Maybe it's because you like her._ Lucan cut in. I scowled slightly into my half-eaten soup.

 _I don't like her any more than I like Starfire. They're both beautiful, but Starfire is with Robin, and Raven has shown absolutely no interest in me. I don't see them like that._

 _Then maybe you should._ Gaia said deviously. I could almost feel the lewd grin on her face. _Mayhaps she be yer bond, boyo._ I grimaced at her changing to the Irish accent. I knew my ancestors came from Ireland, but that was centuries ago. Having one in my head just felt weird.

 _Stop that. And if you mean the bond as in..._

 _Bingo, kid._

 _But I feel absolutely nothing for her beyond a desire for friendship. I barely feel anything for Argent, but I don't want to hurt her feelings._

 _Dude,you realize I had like four bonds right?_ Lucan said with a scoff. My eyes widened. _It's actually weird that the last few generations before you have had only one each._

 _Say what now?_ I thought as Robin took away my soup bowl, which was still half full, and replaced it with the main course. I barely noticed as I began eating mechanically, apparently making conversation with Argent on autopilot, because I was so wrapped up in my inner thoughts.

 _Oh yeah,_ Gaia said nonchalantly. _It's entirely possible that you have multiple bonds. It actually might be overdue too. And you won't feel anything, at first. This is real love kid. Not highschool love. Takes time and dedication._

"Great," I muttered.

"Hmm? What was that Lucas?" Argent perked up from cutting her chicken. I cursed under my breath. I said it out loud.

"Nothing. Anyway, how'd that turn out?" I asked instantly, not even realizing what I was talking about. Her eyes lit up though.

"Oh, it was hilarious! Aqualad ended up being totally naked, and Starfire somehow won the game!"

Strip poker. My new girlfriend was telling me an anecdote about the Titan's escapades with Strip Poker. I was caught up. Lovely.

"You are shitting me! Starfire won at poker?" Argent nodded mirthfully, just as said young woman floated up the stairs, dragging Raven along again.

I pointedly kept my gaze on Argent, to avoid another situation like earlier. Argent kept laughing as I heard a soft violin begin. It started to cresendo, until it was playing slowly, but relatively loud. The worst bit was I recognized the song. It was an obscure romance song written specifically for violin. I peeked out of the corner of my eye to see who was playing. Raven knew how to play the violin. Who knew?

Evidently no one as everyone, even Argent, was now looking at her in open shock. I fully looked at her, expecting her to be nervous about the attention, but I saw she was playing to instrument soulfully, her eyes closed and her bow danced on the strings, her fingers moving madly as the tempo of the song increased. I recognized the part where the vocals were meant to enter, half-way through the song, so I began singing. I couldn't help it. I just sang.

Raven's eyes snapped open and she looked at me, still playing. I directed my eyes to Argent, singing to her, trying not to look at Raven. The fact we knew and liked so much of the same stuff freaked me out a little. It was even worse that my singing voice was exactly the match to the song, a medium baritone, so it came out perfect. The pitch changed suddenly, becoming less about slow romance, and more about needful love, and the lyrics matched. Neither Raven nor I missed a beat. I was freaking out on the inside, when the song finally ended. The five other occupants of thee roof applauded, Argent smiling brilliantly at me.

"Ladies and gentleman," Raven began.

"Sarnosi's _Beautiful Love_ ," I finished quietly.

Robin and Beast Boy coughed a little, then cleared the plates from in front of Argent and me. Cyborg placed the dessert, and Argent immediately dug in. I picked at mine, all appetite lost. I only ate some so Argent wouldn't worry. When she finished, I stood and pulled her chair out for her.

"Did you enjoy the evening?"

"Yes, especially your _beautiful_ voice! I didn't know you could sing so well!" she gushed as we walked down the stairs, her hanging on my right arm. We reached the hall that lead to the rooms, and I stopped.

"Thank you... umm which room are you staying in?"

"Yours." I jerked back and stared at her. "What? We're a couple. It'll be fine." I nodded nervously and continued on to my room. The door had some graffiti on it, probably from when I went psycho. I opened the door and gestured her in. She sat on the bed as I went into the bathroom to change. When I came out, she was in a pair of my boxers and one of my shirts.

"Hope you don't mind," she said with a mischievous grin. "But I don't really have any pj's." I shook my head quickly and directed my eyes to my own pajama pants. Soft black cotton with red and grey lines crossing them in a grid pattern.

"No, you're fine... I mean, it's okay." Argent snickered and grabbed my wrist, pulling me forward, onto the bed. I crawled to the bed, wanting to sleep, but she had other ideas.

She straddled me and began tugging at my drawstrings with one had while her casted hand began teasingly sliding the boxers down.

"The date is over already?" she pouted playfully. "I was hoping for a little more..." she got my pants down and sat right in front of my crotch, on my hips. I knew what she wanted. And it freaked me the fuck out.

 **Flashback- six years ago, the Isley household**

 _Pam was 'babysitting' me while my parents were on vacation in Bocca. I was eleven, and just starting puberty. Pam was twenty-three, and had a guy over. They turned on a movie for me, then sneaked to her old room. I heard them about four minutes into the movie, and decided to investigate. I had no clue, how was I supposed to know?_

 _I crept quietly through the hall, and reached Pam's room door, to find it ajar. I peeked in, to see the most horrifying thing of my life up tot hat point. My sister as having sex with some twenty-something biker. She rode him and moaned loudly, running her arms through her bright orange hair. He was not moving, and his skin was slowly turning green, leaves gradually sprouting from his limbs, followed by poison ivy plants. He finally managed to scream, but it was muffled by a ball-gag in his mouth. Pam kept going._

 _His body was being overgrown by her ivy, and she ignored it. A vine grew out of his mouth, but this one was a rose limb. She screamed loudly just as the rose bloomed, a deep blood-red. She looked at it and smiled, then plucked it._

 _"Oh, for me? This is so sweet." she cooed to her... lover._

 _He looked at her with glossy eyes, a look of fear etched permanently into his face._

 **End Flashback**

That event had scarred me. Not only had I realized my sister was nuts, but I saw her kill someone with sex. To say it skewed my vision on the subject was an understatement. My whole body grew rigid under Argent, except the part she was hoping for.

"Get off me," I whispered.

"Lucas," she whined. "Am I not good enou..." she was cut off as I flung her off my hips my eyes wide with terror. She landed on her ass at the end of the bed. "What the fuck?!" she said loudly as I began hyperventilating, curling into a ball at the head of the bed.

"Lucas?" she tried inching toward me slowly, but stopped when my sword blade rested at her throat. I looked at her fearfully.

"You aren't going to kill me! Stay back!"

"Lucas, what the hell are you talking about?" We stayed that way for several minutes, until my breathing slowed a little and I lowered the blade. She looked at me like I'd lost my damn mind.

"Sex is... a sensitive topic for me," I said apologetically. Argent looked at me in confusion. "You started so quick earlier, and it's not technically _sex_ that it didn't trigger anything." she looked even more confused, so I told her the story.

After I told Argent about that event, she sat there with her jaw hanging open as I tried to calm myself down more.

I shakily placed my sword beside the bed, taking deep breaths attempting to calm my extremely frazzled nerves. Then I felt a sharp pain in my stomach, and my hand flew to my bandages as I groaned.

I looked down to see a small spot of green growing right above my waist. So my wound had torn back open. Lovely.

"You just can't seem to stay healthy," Argent sighed as she retrieved more bandages and some hydrogen peroxide from the bathroom. "It makes me wonder if you'll live to see nineteen." I grunted as she sat me up and began unwrapping my bandages and cleaning the wound that had reopened.

As soon as the peroxide-covered cotton ball touched the ragged edge of my gut-hole, I hissed in pain and involuntarily clenched my stomach, which jerked the cotton ball to the _bottom_ edge of the wound, which in turn caused me to hiss some more. When Argent yanked it back, the cotton caught some of the skin, pulling it out abruptly, which caused me to nearly scream.

"Just leave it alone!" I ground out. For once, I got no argument as she just quickly wrapped me up again and shuffled her feet. I thumped back onto the bed and she crawled in timidly next to me, resting her hand on my chest.

"I'm sorry, Lucas. I didn't mean to..." I could _feel_ the guilt in her voice.

"I know, it just fucking hurt." she nuzzled into the side of my chest sadly, sniffling and on the verge of tears. "Hey, now," I said quietly. "None of that. You didn't mean to, so it's fine." I lifted her chin to look at me, with her big purple eyes all watery and sad. I kissed her forehead. "Let's just get some sleep." she nodded slowly and nuzzled into my side under the covers as much as she could without hurting me, and I wrapped my arm around her. We soon drifted off to sleep.

 **I know, I know. Shorter chapters** _ **BLUH**_ **. I just don't feel it right now. Sorry.**


	15. Chapter 15: Turned Upside Down

**A/N: Ah! Welcome back my loyal readers! I hope you all enjoyed the fluff last chapter, because IT WILL BE THE LAST YOU WILL EVER SEE! MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! No not really, I just like acting like an asshole sometimes. There will be plenty of fluff. And some citrusy goodness later too! But yeah, this chapter has fought me to be born.**

 **Me- GET ONTO THE PAGE YOU UNGRATEFUL BRAT! WE HAVE READERS WHO ARE WAITING!**

 **This Chapter- I dun wanna!**

 **Not even joking, that is what it felt like. Ugh.**

 **Chapter 15: Flipped Upside Down**

I woke slowly from a very light nap, and felt the absence of weight I knew should be there. Argent couldn't be _that_ much of an early riser, right? I mean, I literally woke up at the ass-crack of dawn every single day.

With a soft sigh I opened my eyes slowly, looking around the room. The bathroom door was closed, and I heard water running. Not two minutes later, a very sleepy-looking Argent stumbled out, her hair everywhere and my shirt falling off her shoulder slightly, and immediately face-planted into the bed. The adorable snores came soon after. I had to stop myself from laughing.

I rose and picked her up bridal-style, her arms flopping onto her stomach, then set her in the spot I just vacated, and pulled the covers up to her chin. She snuggled in and mewled a little in contentment. Once I was sure she wouldn't wake up, I padded out of the room silently. I made it to the hall before I ran into Raven, who was floating along, heading in the direction of the Common Room.

"Morning," I monotoned quietly, so as to not be heard through my door.

"What's so good about it?" she asked just as quietly. I smirked a little.

"I never said 'good'. All I said was 'morning'. The only good thing about this morning is that we're not dead." Raven looked at me critically before nodding and continuing on her way. I followed her to the Common Room, because I wanted a mug of tea. She immediately pulled out two tea mugs and set the teakettle on the stove to boil.

"You know, all of you have been surprisingly nice to me considering recent events," I stated thoughtfully. I saw her eyes flick to me momentarily before she turned away to get the tea bags.

"You've had a rough week." I blinked owlishly at her for a moment, then turned away, a small frown of contemplation on my face.

 _I'm not sure what to make of this... I nearly killed one of them, and they act like we've been friends our whole lives. It's like they're trying to make me into something._

 _Everyone needs a friend, dear._ Gaia said sweetly. I frowned more.

 _Again, what did I say about talking to me?_ All I got was a noncommittal grunt.

"You seem to be healing well though... can you move normally?"

"Yeah... I plugged the holes last night with a root and assimilated it into the surrounding tissue. It's quick and dirty, but it's fairly effective for healing myself." I'd done it after I woke up about an hour after Argent and I fell asleep, and Lucan had told me about it.

"Quick and dirty? It sounds effective."

"There are drawbacks. I'll be stiff and sore for a few more days, and the scars will be obvious, but I'm pretty much as good as new. I won't be using it too much though... it hurt like a bitch."

Raven nodded slightly and set my tea in front of me. Just as I was about to take a draft, the alarm rang out, followed by several surprised shouts. The Titans, and a sleepy Argent rubbing her eyes blearily, dashed into the room and Robin shouted.

"Trouble!" the five originals and I dashed for the door. I gave Argent a quick kiss as I passed.

"Lucas, what are you doing?"

"I'm helping, Garfield, what does it look like?" Beast Boy looked skeptical but changed into a pterodactyl and grabbed Cyborg, and Starfire lifted Robin. Raven looked at me.

"How exactly do you propose to follow us?"

In answer I shot my hand out and grew tree branches and roots from my arm, all the way across the bay and onto a light pole, then reeled myself across quickly. Raven flew over.

"I guess that works, but we'll have to think of something else. Plus, it looks like it's in Central, you can't run there." I sent out a root from my hand to wrap around her ankle.

"I'm not." annoyance flashed in her face before she sighed and flew off, lugging me with her. We flew in a small triangle with the others, Robin sending me a funny look, but I just looked ahead, trying to see any sign of our foe. And I did.

"Lucas... ummm maybe you shouldn't help on this one." I snarled at Cyborg who blanched.

"I'M THE ONLY ONE WHO WILL FIGHT THIS BITCH!" I released my grip on Raven and entered a halo dive to Central Park in Jump City, which was an overgrown Ivy forest. I heard Robin call after me, but I ignored him. When I reached them, I lashed out and grabbed a vine, swinging around it to slow my fall, then parkoured my way to the ground. I landed in a patch of sunlight in a crouch, my weapons already drawn. I heard haughty laughter from in front of me, so I snapped my eyes up in cold fury to see the person I hated most.

"Little brother! I never expected to see you helping the Titans!" Pam said with a laugh as she leaned casually on a big-ass poison ivy plant.

"You are no sister of mine," I growled quietly. She put on a mocking expression of hurt, which oddly seemed sort of genuine, and moved her hands to her chest, right over her cold, dead heart.

"Oh, Lucas, I'm hurt! Isn't blood more important than friendship to our family?"

"What family?! You slaughtered Mom, and Dad abandoned me! I. Have. No. Family." I bit out. Now she looked actually concerned. But before she could say anything else, I lunged at her with a roar, swinging my axe viciously. Her eyes widened momentarily before she smirked an ducked under the blade.

"So you finally got your gift, huh? Such a sad weapon though..." but she was cut off as I swung with my sword, revealing it's existence. An annoyed growl escaped her lips as she seemed to concentrate momentarily, before a grass Katana formed in her hand.

"Little known fact, little brother, while we don't actually get a weapon, we can sort of form one with some training. But we lack your _strategic_ mind." I snarled again and lashed out with a stab of my sword, hoping to impale her, but she deflected it with her katana, with some difficulty it seemed.

"You're so dependent on your Bond-plants that your reflexes are slow, Pam. I, on the other hand, am fast, strong, and can fight all day. Especially. Against. You!" I punctuated my words with a vicious downward chop at her head from both my weapons at once. She barely brought her katana up in time to block, and even then, my axe blade was mere inches from her nose, and slowly descending. I had leverage, because I was finally taller than her. She stood at 5' 8" compared to my 6' 4". she grimaced at the force behind my blows.

"True. But let me show you why!" she shot one hand out and Poison Ivy sprouted quickly from her palm and hit my stomach, throwing me back several feet. "I bet you don't even have your..." she fell silent as I sprouted some light armor made from my Bond-Plant to cover my body.

"Impossible... you bonded with the Life-tree?!" she snarled at me. I jerked a little in surprise.

 _The Life-Tree? That's not possible! The Life-Tree can't bond with one of us! It's power is too much!_

 _Evidently not, seeing as it's your Bond-plant._ Lucan cut in. My eye twitched but I said nothing.

 _Subjugate her own bond-plants against her!_ Gaia suddenly cried out. My eyes widened.

 _Can I do that?_

 _YOU ARE BONDED WITH THE LIFE-TREE YOU MORON! OF COURSE YOU CAN!_

I looked at my psychotic sister, who was jibbering like a maniac and looked like she was about to break down completely.

 _I can't do it..._ I heard several outraged shouts, and an alarmed one I recognized as Raven up above the canopy. _I have every right to hate her... I have no reason at all to spare her, but... she's my sister. No matter how much I want to change that, family is greater than anything... if I cut her down... I will truly be alone..._

Tears leaked from my eyes as I watched my only sibling, the person I had looked up to since I could form cognitive thought, muttering to herself and rocking slightly with an expression on her face that screamed 'help me.'

"Pam... what happened to you? What caused all this?" she looked at me momentarily in deep sadness, before she charged at me and swung her blade, hatred written on her face.

"You did! Our parents always pampered you! YOU. GOT. EVERYTHING!" she snarled viciously as she hacked at me. I dodged at the last moment, but she still managed to cut my calf. I gritted my teeth and jumped away.

"You're delusional! Mom and Gabriel treated you the same way they treated me!" she snarled again and charged me once more, forcing me to defend myself. With every hack and slash she did, I came closer and closer to dying. Then she threw some Ivy at me. I reacted on instinct and threw my hand out.

The poison ivy stopped in mid-air and quivered, as though fighting itself, before turning around and crashing into Pam, slamming her back and forcing her to her knees. I'm also pretty sure I heard a few audible snaps from her ribs. She hissed in pain and glared at me hatefully.

"So you can already harness the power..." I walked over to her and rested my sword on her shoulder, pressing the blade to her neck.

"Give up Pam. Get help. Go to Arkham." her eyes flashed and she snarled at me. "You can't scare me anymore, Ivy. You haven't been able to scare me for years." she roared wordlessly and snapped her katana up, lashing away my sword, and jumped at me, barreling her shoulder into my gut. I fell to the ground with a grunt, with Poison Ivy straddling me, pinning my wrists with her knees, sitting on my stomach. What she did next surprised the hell out of me; she dropped her blade. Before I could do anything though, she slugged me with all her might.

She followed through with punch after punch, but with each one she seemed to grow weaker and I heard sobs fall from her mouth and hot tears fall onto my chest. She was crying, while beating the shit out of me.

After what seemed like forever, her fist was barely clenched, and her knuckles tapped against my chin, but stopped, all strength gone from the woman.

"You'll never understand little brother... you'll never know what it's like... to be called a freak... to have everyone look at you with contempt... to never be able to find love..." with that, her weight disappeared from my body. I stayed still, feeling my cheeks, jaw, basically my whole face, swell slightly. My eyes had closed like thirty punches ago. Not from swelling shut, just because I couldn't stand to watch Ivy, the cold-blooded deranged killer and Eco-terrorist, break down crying. I don't know how long I remained there, but eventually I felt five forms around me, and heard an exasperated sigh that could really only be Raven. Beast Boy was snickering slightly, and Starfire was making worried noises.

"Did you have fun, Lucas?" Raven asked, either cold fury or extreme irritation obvious in her voice, I couldn't tell which.

"Raven... I didn't want all of you fighting my battle. It was something I had to do for myself."

"And we all see how well that turned out, don't we?" Beast Boy snickered louder, and I felt the cold glare Raven sent him. He shut up quickly. I opened my eyes slowly, to see Raven standing _much_ closer than I thought. She was standing literally right over me, her cape thrown back and her arms crossed, her foot tapping next to my head as soon as I opened my eyes. Her cowl was down, so her hair fell around her face in short curtains. My breath hitched.

"Beautiful..." I muttered to myself. Her eyebrow quirked itself, but she said nothing. She walked around and held out her hand to help me up. I gripped it as she pulled me to my feet, her head resting right around my chin. She was actually about the same height as Argent. I turned to leave, but her hand on my shoulder stopped me. I turned back to her, only to be flicked in the nose.

"Don't do that again. You had us worried," she said softly, a light blush adorning her cheeks. I nodded slightly and turned around once more, actually leaving the impromptu jungle. I called back over my shoulder.

"You guys go on without me. I'll see you back at the tower."

As I left the maze of vines, and exited onto the street, I saw people around me, chattering and pointing at me. I ignored them. A police officer walked up to me, and I recognized him. It was one of my mom's friends and the one guy she had dated since Gabriel died.

"Hey, James," I said quietly. He looked at me momentarily, before he seemed to recognize me. I couldn't blame him. I had scars, my face was black and blue, I was without a shirt or shoes, and I had _weapons covered in blood_ on my hips. I had long ago dissolved my armor.

"Lucas... oh my god! What... what happened to you?!" I waved my hand dismissively and walked past him.

"It doesn't matter," I continued without another word, and I knew he was standing there with a gobsmacked expression, unable to comprehend the new me, especially the lack of a stutter. I kept walking, people on the sidewalk giving me a wide berth, aimlessly, my hands in my pockets. Eventually I focused on my surroundings, and was surprised, and scared, to find myself at the Vine Cafe. It was a little place that specialized in tea, herbal drinks, and all-natural food. Pam and I had gone often together when I was younger. I sat down in a chair outside, and soon after a waitress walked out to take my order. She took a look at me, but didn't seem to care. I guess living in Jump City, you see a lot of weird shit.

"Welcome to the Vine! What can I get you?" she was a new waitress. Before I could answer the door opened again and a fourty-something older woman stepped out with a gasp.

"Lucas! Oh I haven't seen you in a while!" I was immediately crushed into a hug, my face brought down to rest on her shoulder. The owner of thee Vine, Sarah, was a family friend and had always basically pampered me, despite all my protests.

"Jessica, this is Lucas! The regular I was telling you about!" she said to the waitress as she let me go and I flopped back into my chair listlessly. Sarah sat down across from me and eyed me sadly. Jessica, the waitress, eyed me a little, then huffed.

"Are you going to order, or are you just going to sit there, mister regular?" Sarah shot her a look that said _be nice,this boy is more important to me than you are_.

"I'll have a jive green, a bran raisin muffin, and an herbal coffee with two shots of cream." Jessica looked surprised I spouted that off without looking at the menu. She nodded and wrote down my order, then went inside to deliver it to the barista, Zack, Sarah's nephew. Sarah turned to me, concern on her face.

"I heard about Janine..." she said slowly. I cringed at the mention of my mother and looked at her with baleful eyes.

"Pam's in town..." her eyes widened and she seemed to take in my appearance. Her mouth silently formed words as she reached across the table and rested her hand on my arm.

"I'm so sorry, sweetheart, if there is anything you need, you know where to find me." I nodded and zoned out until my order arrived. I pushed the tea over to Sarah and took the muffin and coffee for myself. I noticed a gentle, and very sad, smile appear on her face as she took the tea out of the corner of my eye.

 _Lucas..._ I scowled fiercely.

 _Get out of my head you fucking jackass. I don't want you to talk to me at all._ I heard a scared gulp from the spirit of my father, but he didn't leave.

 _Lucas, there is something you need to know._

 _I don't care. Leave me alone or I will find a way to kill you again._ His presence dissapeared and Sarah looked at me with concern.

"Are you okay, dear?"

"I'm fine, Sarah, but thank you." she hesitated slightly, but nodded. "Do you think I could stay over tonight? I don't want to go back to the Titan's Tower." her eyes bugged out as I said where I had been staying since my mom died, but she quickly nodded.

"Of course. Finish your coffee and muffin, and we'll go." I nodded and sipped my coffee as she took her tea inside to finish up whatever business she had inside. I sat there, staring blankly across the street, sipping my coffee and nibbling my muffin, until I heard a loud squeal. I turned to find the source to find a few girls about my age in school uniforms looking at me and blushing, whispering to each other. The bolted over and took the table next to mine, all four of them trying to 'discreetly' check me out. I doubt they even knew what Cafe they were at, or that it had existed before today. That's what I had always liked about the Vine, almost no-one knew about it, so it was fairly private.

Once Jessica took their orders, they turned to each other and began giggling amongst themselves, casting looks at me. I couldn't shake the feeling I knew them. I looked closer and recognized their uniforms. They went to my school. Upon closer inspection, I realized it was the popular clique girls. The ones who had always mocked me for being shy. I decided to fuck with them as payback. I leaned back in my chair and put on a charismatic grin, looking at the only blonde in the group.

"Hey, Nicole. Long time no see, ne?" she looked confused that I knew her, and was obviously trying to place me. I pondered for a moment that they weren't affected by my pheromones, but shrugged it off. "Oh, you don't remember me, Nicole? I'm hurt! After all the time we spent together! All those long nights spent in your room together!" she turned beet red as her friends gasped and giggled, almost immediately begging her for details. I smirked at her, which she noticed. I had privately tutored Nicole for a couple years, before she became popular, and she hadn't wanted her parents to see her struggling, so we'd studied in her room. Eventually, we'd shared a few kisses, her initiating based on our mutual attraction, but everything changed when she made more friends; those around her now.

She still looked confused for a few more minutes, before I saw it click in her eyes, and she paled as her mouth fell open. I smirked even more as her gaze raked over me, taking in everything new, and they few things that had stayed the same.

"Lucas..." she said quietly. Her friends leaned in, not having heard her clearly. I nodded at her, then took a drink of my coffee, finishing it off, and pulled out some cash from my wallet, placing it on the table to pay not only for myself, but also for the girls next to me. I might resent them for making fun of me, but I found being polite and forgiving people made me feel better. Jessica walked out and saw the wad of cash and cast me a questioning glance.

"For me, and the group of young ladies at the next table. Have a nice day Jessica, Nicole," I said turning to her and dipping my head slightly. She looked shaken. Sarah walked out right then and we walked away, not looking back.

"You know that was kind of dumb, right?" I chuckled drily.

"A wise woman once told me 'don't forget what has been done to you, but forgive those responsible, and be kind to them in the hope they will change and pass on that kindness.' that's all I was doing." she looked at me sideways and smiled.

"I hope you plan to shower and put on a shirt at my house, Lucas."

"Shower, yes, shirt, no." she huffed but we kept walking. For five blocks, we made small talk and idle chatter, until we made it to Sarah's apartment. We climbed the four flights of stairs and she unlocked the door. Once inside, she declared she wanted a shower first and went to take one. I looked around at the apartment, reminiscing on all the times I had spent the night here as a kid. Sarah had always treated me like her own child. I noticed her desk, covered in papers. I walked over and sat in her chair, and immediately saw a picture of me as a baby in my father's arms as he smiled at me. I frowned.

 _Why does Sarah have this picture?_ I looked around for answers, and saw my name on a drawer towards the bottom of the file cabinet pushed against the wall. My frown deepened as I pulled it open and saw it full. I flipped through quickly.

Report cards.

Health reports.

School awards.

Endless pictures.

Basically my entire life was squashed into this one little drawer in the home of a woman I saw as an aunt, but had no blood relation to whatsoever. Was she a stalker, or just liked to keep up to date on her adopted nephew? Either way it freaked me out, because it was all chronological. I flipped endlessly, through almost eighteen years of my own life, until I reached the back. Then I found it.

My birth certificate.

My eyes bugged out. I clearly saw my name on the certificate, and my father's on the line for father, but my mind could not comprehend what I was seeing. This was the first time I had ever seen my birth certificate. I had never had a reason to look at it. The water stopped running, and Sarah stepped out, wrapped in a towel and drying her hair. She saw me at the desk and froze, fear flashing in her eyes as I looked up slowly. My mouth was sandpaper, and my body was stiff. I held out the birth certificate.

Sarah's signature was on the line marked 'mother.'


	16. Chapter 16: A New Reality

**I just realized I never did comment on the third review I got on this story.**

 **Guest: I disagree, but it's nice to know you enjoy it! It's reviews like those that get me motivated to work on a story. For example, I get so many positive reviews for my Naruto Story "The ANBU Genin" that it flows from my fingertips easily. As opposed to this story, which I have difficulty after the first ten chapters. So, please, tell your friends.**

 **Chapter 16: A Crumbling Reality**

Sarah looked at me like a cornered animal as I held out the birth certificate that held her signature instead of my Mom's.

"Lucas," she said skittishly. "I can explain."

"Then do it."

She gulped at the ice in my voice and held up her hands in surrender. "Can I get dressed first?"

I nodded and she bolted for her room. I hear cursing through the door, until she finally stepped out in a pair of jeans and a blouse. I raised one eyebrow expectantly as she sat in the chair across the desk, where guests would sit while she's working from home. Obviously I had her scared.

"Your father," I snarled slightly at the mention of that man, but she continued. "Didn't want you to know he was with anyone other than his wife..."

"So he's a cheating, lying dead bastard. I should have known."

"It happened right after I moved to Jump. I was poor, scared, and had no confidence."

"You were a stripper." she flinched and nodded slightly.

"I had just gotten off work... and he was so charismatic, and handsome. He made me feel... wanted. It only lasted one night, but when I found out I was pregnant, I tracked him down. He took me to court for custody as soon as he could."

"Doesn't the system usually choose in favor of the mother?"

"His lawyer was better, plus I didn't have a steady job that was considered acceptable for raising a child, and he already had a family. The court let him raise you. He let me stay in your life, but I wasn't allowed to let you know I was your mother."

"So you started the Vine and convinced him to let Pam take me there often." she nodded again. "Why name it the Vine though?" I was a little worried.

"I knew about his powers, Lucas. And yours. He'd shown me when he thought I was drunk and wouldn't remember." I scowled.

 _Moron tells me not to tell his wife, then shows off to some random woman. What a fucking hypocrite._

"So Pam is only my half-sister." It was more a statement of fact than a question, but she nodded anyway. "Why didn't you try getting me back when it took off?"

"I did. I tried to take him to court, but by that point, you were ten and already thought Janine was your birth mother. It was decided the sudden change could destabilize you, or some bullshit like that." I sighed heavily and leaned back, rubbing my temples.

I was muttering under my breath, and Sarah just sat there, looking terrified. Finally I broke the silence.

"I guess I can't really blame you. That fucker made sure all his bases were covered, huh?" I opened my eyes to see her staring at me in confusion.

"I thought you loved your dad?"

"Once upon a time. Recently I've had my eyes opened," I said quietly as I replayed every moment in my life where I had interacted with the woman across from me. Suddenly all her acts of kindness made slightly more sense. Giving me my stuff free, and Pam's at a discount. Giving me big birthday presents whenever she saw me around my birthday. All my life, she had been forced to act as though I wasn't her child, but she had found ways. I couldn't help but smile.

"Janine did love you though," she suddenly said. My smile fell.

"I know..."

We sat in silence for several minutes as she scratched the back of her head awkwardly. Finally, she tried to break the tension.

"So... what weapons do you have...?" she started slowly. I smirked and put my axe on the table, followed by my sword. Her eyes bugged at the blood, but she said nothing.

"I'm a scout, apparently. I sleep very little, I eat more than three times my weight a day, and I photosynthesize enough to keep ten people alive in case of disaster."

Sarah made a small noise, and steepled her fingers and looked at me appraisingly. And Longingly.

"I don't want to know about your powers, Lucas. I want to know about you. What's your favorite food, favorite movie, game, music. Everything. I want to know if there's someone special to you."

"You basically want to be a mom to make up for almost eighteen years that were denied you."

She nodded sadly. "All I know is that you like coffee, and were once so full of life. I know you're sarcastic, because you always have been. I want to know you, Lucas, even if you can't bring yourself to call me mom."

I gazed at her softly. This woman, this woman who gave birth to me, who was forced to watch from afar, wanted to try to fill the gap she never wanted and get to know her child as best she could. I knew if she could've she would have been as loving and supportive as Mom was. Or...Janine I guess. I wasn't sure what to call anyone anymore.

"I'm not sure who to call Mom. The woman who raised me? Or the woman who was supposed to? Either way, I would have been loved and cared for. So frankly, my head hurts." a small smile graced Sarah's face.

"At least you think deeper than the surface." I sighed and leaned back.

"I inherited a good brain," I said with my eyes closed. I could feel her smile.

"So... where do we start?"

"I like Heavy Metal, Jazz, R and B, Rock, and Classical music. My favorite band is Disturbed, and my favorite movie is by far 'Return of the Gaelic Sea-Monster.'"

"A classic," she said approvingly. "What about food? Favorite type? Or dessert? Something?"

"Only if I can know yours. Same time," I said as I opened my eyes. She nodded with a grin. I nodded three times and we opened our mouths.

"Cookies-n-Creme Ice cream."

She looked at me momentarily, and I her, then we both broke into wide grins.

"I've got a two-gallon in the freezer. What say we crack it and watch that movie?" she said after a second.

"A two-gallon? That's barely enough for me by myself. And if you're as addicted to it as I am, which I highly doubt, there won't be enough for either of us. The stuff is the food of the gods."

"I seriously doubt you can be more addicted than me, Lucas. I once ate five ten-gallons in a sitting."

I snorted in laughter. "Only five? I eat twice that for a midnight snack."

"You also need more calories to survive."

"That's beside the point. Gabriel never understood how I could eat so much pure sugar and not be sick. At least now I know where I got my sweet tooth."

She laughed and threw her head back a little. It made me feel warm inside. Not fuzzy, just warm. Like I actually belonged.

"He never did like sweets did he?"

"No, he preferred spicy foods. I'll eat anything, but Cookies-n-Creme is an absolute must."

Sarah nodded in agreement.

"Wait... so what about girls?" I immediately turned bright neon green. She smiled knowingly and leaned forward, resting her elbows on the desk between us. "Oooooh, jackpot." I tried sputtering some nonsensical response, but her Cheshire Cat grin tripped me up.

"What's her name?" she asked, sarcastically, in an innocent tone.

I mumbled Argent's name under my breath, trying to avoid saying 'Raven' with all my might.

"What was that?" she said, that Cheshire grin getting annoying. I had a sudden thought to deflect the subject.

"What about you?"

"What about me?"

"No guys? I'd think you'd have found someone else by now and had a kid you could keep."

"..."

I nearly facepalmed at how cruel that sounded, but she seemed to understand what I meant.

"It just... didn't feel right to have another child when I couldn't even hold my own son... and as for guys? Pfff, the only people that I get attention from are my customers, who are either your age, eww, or hippies that need a bath, also eww."

"Damn, and here I was hoping I could threaten some poor bastard and make him piss himself."

"Watch your mouth," she said sternly, ignoring my grin.

"I'm almost eighteen. I'm technically a Teen Titan, and I'm a half-plant being that can grow tree limbs out of my flesh. I think I have the liberty to say whatever I damn well please." She nodded, conceding my point. A thought suddenly entered my head.

"Does this mean Zack is my cousin?" I got a nod which caused me to groan and slump over the desk.

"What?"

"He's such a dick..." I said glumly. I suddenly felt anger radiating off her in waves.

"Oh, is he?"

"Sarah," I said quickly, snapping up to look at her. At least I knew where my temper came from. She ignored me, by the way.

"MOM!" she looked at me, her eyes suddenly watery and her mouth hanging open. "I don't expect family to be nice. If we don't get along, we don't get along."

"You... called me mom..." I blushed a little as I realized she was right. I looked at the desk, thinking about how naturally it came to me. She had always treated me like her own child, my knowledge of that truth being irrelevant, even going so far as to teach me lessons a mother should teach her son.

"You were actually more of a mother than... Janine was, to be perfectly honest. Not by much, but there was always that distance I didn't understand... now I guess it makes sense..." I said with a downcast look. She'd never been truly mean to me, but seemed more ready to punish me if I did something wrong, or less likely to cave to my requests.

I heard a rustle, then was suddenly enveloped in a large, warm hug from the side. Without looking up, I turned into my Mother's arms and rested my face on her shoulder. My eyes burned with unshed tears as I buried my face as far into her hug as I could without hurting her. It felt so... right. She, from her position of standing over me hugging me, lifted one hand and tentatively stroked my dark brown, almost black, hair. She didn't even seem perturbed by the feel of fibrous roots instead of actual extra-dermal growth like most people had.

"Shh, baby. It's okay, shhh," she cooed, tears evident in her voice at finally being able to hold her child. When they fell, they were warm on my neck. Her tears unleashed my own, and I began bawling like an infant, unsure of where this emotional streak was coming from. I never cried like this. Not since I found my powers. But she didn't seem to mind, as she just kept stroking my hair and cooing into my ear, attempting to soothe me. I cried all the harder. This was something I had never had; a parent truly be there for me.

Janine had never comforted me like this, and Gabriel had always made me calm myself down.

I was finally getting a family, but at the cost of what I knew. I couldn't tell if I was happy or sad at the development. I settled for in between, before I forced myself out of Sarah's shoulder and wiped my face roughly. She withdrew to the seat without complaint.

"So, you're a Teen Titan."

"No. I'm a Teen Titan Trainee, currently under power parole."

"Power Parole?"

"They're keeping me under observation."

"For what?"

"I had a mild psychotic episode and nearly killed Argent." Sarah's eyes bugged out and she gaped like a fish for a moment. I shrugged. "Found a letter from Gabe." Her mouth formed an 'O', and her eyes flicked from me, to the freezer, to the couch and TV, over and over. I got the unasked question.

"I'll grab the spoons and the ice-cream if you start searching for a good movie." she nodded and quickly bolted to the couch, bouncing giddily. I chuckled as I went about my task.

Family was nice.


	17. Chapter 17: The Night Sky

**Chapter 17: The Night Sky**

"Zzzzzzz..." Sarah's snores were soft and quiet, her head resting on the arm of the couch as her legs curled under her. With a soft smile, I flipped the TV off and found a paper and pen.

 _Sorry I couldn't stay._

 _Had to get back to the Tower._

 _Lucas._

I always kept notes short and sweet. I locked the apartment door behind me with the spare key hidden on the doorframe and made my way outside, the night air carrying the frigidity of mid-to-late winter. Despite Jump being dead-center on the coastline of California, we got the occasional snowstorm from up north, and it seemed we'd be getting one here soon. I'd have to get a jacket. I walked aimlessly with my hands in my pockets and my eyes on the sidewalk. I walked for what felt like hours, before I saw water lapping at my bare toes. I looked around to find myself on the beach across the bay from the Tower, only a block or two from my old house. I could easily make out the trees I'd caused to sprout up the last time I'd been there, and I grimaced.

"Chilly night," came a gravelly voice from behind me. I turned my head and saw a homeless guy trying to keep a beach fire going. His clothes were ripped and full of holes, his hair was grimy and lifeless, and I could smell him from five feet. He seemed decent enough, so I walked over and sat down across from him. "Ye shouldn't be out in only a pair o' jeans in winter, kiddo." I shrugged.

"It doesn't really bother me. I've always been a walking heater, so..."

"Still, you might catch your death." I graced him with an appraising look, seeing how gaunt his cheeks were and how his ribs poked out from under his rags, his flesh clinging desperately to his bones.

"When was the last time you ate, old man?" a grimace flashed on his face.

"Not much to eat in the trash, and folk ain't as kind as they once were. I'll be fine," he said with a wave. "I'm more worried about a young man walkin' around in the middle of the night like he don't know his way." I sighed as I leaned my head back and looked at the stars, their glimmering forms more visible as far as we were from the main city lights.

"I'm not sure I do know my way, to be honest. Where does one go with nowhere to go?"

"One always has somewhere to go," the man said sagely as the fire popped. "Even if only for a time. A Young man such as you surely has those who care of his well-being." I glanced down to see him stoking the fire with a stick. I smiled as I gazed into the amber depths.

"Yeah, one or two." I stayed for another hour, making idle chit-chat with the man, before I rose to leave. "Thanks for talking to me, old man." he waved in dismissal.

"I should be thanking you. Not many nowadays'd stop'n talk to an old bum. I'm just sad I had nothing to share in way of food." I hid my smirk. I'd been forcing potatoes to grow in the sand around him as we talked, no easy feat given how bad sand sucked for growing produce, but it helped that there were spores in the water around here from people washing potatoes in their home sinks.

"Well, you never know. I heard potatoes are good when cooked in coals," I said with a lazy wave over my shoulder at a sprouting plant a few feet to his left. "Have a good night old man."

With that, I walked away, heading back to the Titan's Tower.

 **A/N: yeah, I know it's short.**


End file.
